
Class __ 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



ECCLESIASTICAL* POLITY : ' 



ITS 



FORMS AND PHILOSOPHY, 



By REV. A.. N. FILLMORE, 



ROCHESTER : 

HARRISON & LUCKEY, PRINTERS, 24 ARCADE, 

1847. 



3V£47 



» % 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year of our Lord. 1846, 
By A. N. Fillmore, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court 
of the Northern District of New-York. 

iZZ Met. h» SL *1 f\. &-- ~— 



c 3V4 



PREFACE. 



The author obtrudes himself upon the public with defer- 
ence. He is aware that the wide field of ecclesiastical jurispru- 
dence has been faithfully explored ; and is not unmindful of 
the multitude of books which overspread this land of light 
and letters ; and that new ones are apparently unnecessary : 
but he has been prompted to the publication of this treatise 
in view of the following considerations. First, a work is 7 
needed which covers the whole ground of church government, 
to put into the hands of all the people ; to guard against bigo- 
try in the form of Popery on one side, and against laxness 
and licentiousness in ecclesiastical polity, on the other. Sec- 
ondly, it is necessary as an elementary work for examining 
students in theology, in a systematic manner, on ecclesiasti- 
cal polity. What they now learn, on that subject, has to be 
gleaned from a multitude of conflicting authors, each one ad- 
vocating, not only his own peculiar system, but usually his 
exclusive system. Thirdly, it is needed as a check upon the 
power and influence of ecclesiastical aspirants and division- 
ists. If men could view the whole ground at once, and see 
the checks and balances which regulate ecclesiastical powers 



IV PREFACE. 

and prerogatives, they would not be so easily lead astray by 
those restless spirits. Fourthly, many christians and even 
ministers entertain distorted views on that subject, as one or 
the other author, from the rigid Churchman, to the lax Inde- 
pendent has casually fallen. into their hands; and, Fifthly, 
no such work has ever been given to the public within the 
authors knowledge. Amid the rapid improvements in science 
and literature, church polity has to be gathered up in frag- 
ments. No general system has been published. After ex- 
amining some forty or fifty volumes before him, the author 
finds that though well intended, and ably written, they are 
almost invariably exparte, and evidently designed, in many 
instances, to favor their own exclusiveness. 

The course pursued in this work is to introduce just so 
much of civil polity, which is generally plain, and often well 
understood, as will serve to explain and illustrate church gov- 
ernment, which is usually more abstruse, or less readily ap- 
prehended from being less frequently examined. Another 
effort has been brevity, to embody facts and arguments in as 
few words as possible ; and in order to a correct understand- 
ing of this work it should be read consecutively, as many of the 
chapters presuppose a knowledge of those which precede them. 

The author of this work claims precedence in making at 
least an incipient effort, to rescue the system of church polity 
from the hands of partisans, and to reduce it to a science ; and 
perfection could not be expected in a first treatise, more than 
in the first printing type, or steam engine ; and more especi- 
ally when prepared amid a pressure of pastoral labors. — 
Whether he be successful or otherwise, it may throw out hints 



v PREFACE. V 

which may be improved by a more efficient hand, after the 
author of this shall have passed away : and it is his humble 
prayer that this work may have a tendency to allay the as- 
perities of ecclesiastical controversy ; and to guide immor- 
tal minds in the way of peace, and to the port of rest. 



INDEX. 

CHAPTER I. 

Of civil polity and order. — Their necessity. 

CHAPTER II. 

Of civil government. — Its forms. — Monarchy, Aristocracy, Democracy. 

CHAPTER HI. 

Of civil government. — Its Philosophy. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Of ecclesiastical polity. — Its necessity and nature. 

CHAPTER V. 

Of ecclesiastical polity. — Its forms — Episcopal, Presbyterial, Congre- 
gational. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Of Episcopacy as found in the church of Rome. — Its origin and progress. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Of Episcopacy as found in the church of Rome. — Its strength. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Of Episcopacy as found in the church of Rome. — Its dangerous ten- 
dencies to the liberties of the world. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Of Episcopacy as found in the church of Rome. — The antidote to 
those dangerous tendencies. 



INDEX. VII 

CHAPTER X. 

Of Episcopacy as found in the church of England. 

CHAPTER XL 

Of Episcopacy as found in the Protestant Episcopal church in the 
United States. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Of the Presbyterial form of church government. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Of the Congregational form of church government 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The church a Theocracy. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Consequences resulting from the fact that the church is a Theocracy, 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Of the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church. — Its Origin - 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Of the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church. — Its Potency, 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

. Of the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church. — Its Purity. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Of the Episcopacy of Methodism. 

CHAPTER XX. *, 

Power of Bishops in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Necessity of Bishops m the Methodist Episcopal Church. 



VIII INDEX. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Contrast between Methodist Bishops and those of other Churches.. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Of the Presbyterial aristocracy of Methodism, or the powers of its 
presbyters. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Of the necessity of Presiding Elders in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Of the Congregational Democracy of Methodism, or the powers of 
the laity. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Of Deacons in the Church of God. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Of Lay Officers in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Of the Philosophy of Ecclesiastical government. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Of church constitutions. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Of disorganizes in churches. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Dutv to sustain civil and ecclesiastical order. 



ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 



CHAPTER I. 

OP CIVIL POLITY AND ORDER. 

Their Necessity. 

Government is a system of fundamental rules by which 
organized communities are regulated. 

Its design is to secure to mankind their social rights, to pro- 
tect their persons and property, to guarantee a general defence, 
and secure a common welfare, to direct the operations and 
ascertain the duties of the whole; and finally to transmit its 
blessings to posterity. 

Government of some kind has existed in every age, and 
from the natural relations among men it always must exist. 

Its first general desideratum is order and stability. We find 
a manifest example of this in all the works ol God : in the 
revolutions of seasons ; in the creation, and propagation of 
plants, and animals ; in the arrangement, and exact order of 
the heavenly bodies ; and in the promulgation of law. 

God is the Author of natural order. Were it otherwise com- 
ets and planets, satellites and suns in all the distant regions of 
space would forsake their ancient orbits, and with ungovern- 
able fury rush onward in terrific and lawless disorder, dashing 
and shattering every thing in their way, and carrying wild 
ruin,, consternation and destruction through the universe-. 



10 CIVIL POLITY AND ORDER, 

The exact revolutions of the heavenly bodies, in their regular 
orbits, demonstrates that God is a being of order. 

He is author of political order, and gave his ancient peo- 
ple a law to regulate their civil affairs. Without civil order 
there would be no civil protection, and no security to person 
or property, unless guarded by a superior force. Every man 
being his own governor, and a law unto himself, would with 
impunity follow the dictates of his own selfish lusts, regardless 
of his neighbors rights, and the incessant collisions which 
would necessarily ensue, would overwhelm the world with 
violence and conflict. 

God is the author of ecclesiastical order. He instituted 
a priesthood, and appointed prophets under the old dispensa- 
tion. He called and ordained ministers as apostles, prophets, 
teachers, et cetra., under the new dispensation, and gave them 
authority and the oversight of the churches. Had church 
order been needless no such provisions would have been 
made. The order of God is violated when an unholy priest- 
hood seek to oppress the people, or when the ministry is forced 
upon them by civil enactments, or when the people seek to 
degrade the sanctity of the ministerial office, or when laymen 
usurp the place where God placed his ministers. Thus the 
order of God in the natural and moral world verifies the truth 
of the apostolic assertion, that " God is not the author of con- 
fusion." Order presupposes law and there can be none with- 
out it. In a world where pure rectitude reigns, order might 
exist without compulsory process, but where sin has deranged 
matter and mind, law is indispensable ; and all efforts to do 
without it would prove unavailing. Every individual would 
be without protection to person or property, the unrestrained 
passions of men would conflict with each other, and the con- 
tused world would be filled with violence and blood. Law, 
says Judge Blackstone, " in its most general and comprehen- 
sive sense signifies a rule of action ; and is applied indiscrim- 
inately to all kinds of action, whether animate or inanimate, 



THEIR NECESSITY. 11 

rational or irrational. Thus we say the laws of motion, of 
gravitation, of optics, of mechanics, as well as the laws of na- 
ture, and of nations. And it is a rule prescribed by some 
superior and which the inferior is bound to obey."- In this 
treatise it signifies a rule of human action. 

God as the proprietor and governor of the world, is the 
source of all law. Man being dependent on him should con- 
form in all points to his will, and this obligation necessarily 
arises from the relation of man to his Maker. This is fre- 
quently denominated the law of nature, founded in justice an- 
terior to any positive command ; eternal and unchangeable. 
The law of God is superior to all other laws: always binding 
upon all intelligences everywhere in Jehovahs dominions, and 
all contradictory human laws are forever nugatory. The re- 
vealed law of God contained in the Bible, the same in its obliga- 
tion and tendency with the law of nature, is a direct revelation, 
and was given in compassion to the weakness of human reason, 
as darkened by the original apostacy. These laws come 
clothed with the sanctions of rewards and punishments in a 
future life, and on their practice man is dependent for happi- 
ness. Laws divine and human demand obedience, and re- 
quire enforcement, and this presupposes an executive. In the 
administration of civil governments, and in the execution of 
human laws, it has been found necessary to place individuals 
at the head of nations, and the great desideratum is to clothe 
them with sufficient power to direct the public energies to the 
best end ; and still be under sufficient restraint to prevent 
their encroachments upon the liberties of the people. 

Executive enforcement presupposes a penalty. Judge 
Blackstone says : " Of all the parts of a law the most effectual 
is the vindicatory. For it is but lost labor to say ' do this, or 
avoid that' unless we also declare ' this shall be the consequence 
of your noncompliance.' We must therefore observe that 
the main strength and force of a law consists in the penalty 



12 CIVIL POLITY AND ORDER. 

annexed to it. Herein is to be found the principal obligation 
of human laws." 

As order and stability are desirable, the most enlightened 
nations of the earth have an established constitution, or system 
of fundamental rules by which they are governed, and to 
which all their laws are conformed. It secures to every citi- 
zen his rights and privileges, assigns to each branch of gov- 
ernment its powers and prerogatives, restrains the rulers with- 
in prescribed limits, and can only be amended as prescribed by 
itself. Without these precautions there is danger of sudden 
changes and revolutions from the usurpation of lawless rulers 
on the one side, and of reckless demagogues at the head of a 
fickle populace on the other- 



CHAPTER II. 

OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

Its Forms. — Monarchy, Aristocracy, Democracy. 

" Civil society being once formed, government results of 
course to keep society in order, for unless there be some supe- 
rior constituted power whose commands are to be obeyed there 
can be no civil society." Power must be lodged somewhere 
to protect the innocent, and punish the guilty, but where shall 
this power be vested ? Where should the reins of govern- 
ment be entrusted % This great question has arrested the at- 
tention of every age, and has agitated the legislative and ex- 
ecutive cabinets of all nations ; and its solution has frequently 
desolated the world and drenched it in blood. 

That form of government is doubtless best, which most fully 
secures the rights of the whole, and dispenses its blessings 
upon the aggregate mass, without having undue regard to in- 
dividual prerogative. 

The principal forms of civil government are Monarchy, 
Aristocracy and Democracy, all others being modifications. 

A MONARCHY is a government executed by the authority 
of a single individual. The throne is generally held through 
life and is hereditary. 

An Absolute Monarchy or Autocracy is where a person 
rules by himself, without ministry, parliament, or council, as 
the Autocrat of Russia. 

A Despotism is where he governs by his own will, with 
oppression, and without established laws, as in Persia. 

A Limited Monarchy is where the power of the prince is 



14 CIVIL POLITY AND ORDER. 

restrained by a constitution and a representative assembly of 
the people, as in Great Britain and France. 

An ARISTOCRACY is a government where the nobles 
of a country govern conjointly. 

An Oligarchy nearly allied to it is where a few either 
nobles or plebeians rule the nation, and it frequently obtains 
where in the revolutions of empires the former ruler is deposed. 

A DEMOCRACY is a government where the power is 
lodged in the hands of the people collectively, and where they 
assemble in the aggregate to make the laws. It is seldom 
found except in towns or very small states. 

A Republic is a democratic government, administered by 
representatives, chosen by the people at large. 

A Federal Government or confederation is a union of 
several independent states for mutual defence, sending repre- 
sensatives to a general congress, or diet, as the United States, 
Switzerland and Germany. 

The Patriarchal is a government by a patriarch, or father, 
over his family, as monarch. It is supposed to have extended 
from the creation to the exodus, about two thousand years ; but 
now obtains only in the sparse settlements of Greenland, Lap- 
land, New Holland, and in some small islands. 

A Theocracy is a government from God as Law giver. 
It existed only among the Jews ; for they were the only peo- 
ple who received a Revelation from God. anterior to the Chris- 
tian Era ; and their laws were contained in the Pentateuch. 

A Hierarchy is a government in the hands of a priesthood, 
usually comprehending different orders. 

An Anarchy is a want of government, or state of policical 
confusion, where the laws are inefficient, and where the leeis- 
Iative and executive power are acknowledged no where, or 
every where, according to the caprice of the public. This 
frequently obtains during the revolutions of empires, but of all 
states of society this is most dreadful, for even tyranny is better 
than anarchy, and the worst government better than none at all. 



CHAPTER III. 

OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT* 
Its Philosophy. 

In this chapter we design to shew : « 

First, The excellencies and defects of each of the three 
principal forms of civil government ; and, Secondly, to shew 
the tendencies of each of those forms. 

In civil governments each peculiar mode has its good and 
bad qualities, as will be seen by investigating the nature of 
the three regular forms allowed by the political writers of 
antiquity. 

A Monarchy, says Sir William Blackstone, in his com- 
mentaries on the common law of England, is indeed the most 
powerful of any form of government, for by the entire con- 
junction of the legislative and executive, all the sinews of 
government are knitted together, and united in the hand ot the 
prince : but then there is imminent danger of his employing 
that strength to improvident or oppressive purposes. 

An Aristocracy, says the same standard author, has more 
wisdom than the other forms of government, being composed, 
or intended to be composed, of the most experienced citizens ; 
but there is less honesty than in a republic, and less strength 
than in a monarchy. 

In a Democracy, where the right of making laws resides 
in the people at large, public virtue or goodness of intention 
is more likely to be found than in either of the other qualities 
of government- Popular assemblies he adds, are often foolish 
in contrivance, and weak in execution : but generally mean 



16 CIVIL POLITY AND ORDER. 

to do the thing that is right and just, and have always a degree 
of patriotism or public spirit. 

Now the great object in legislation should be to unite in one 
government as much as possible these three needful qualities 
of strength, wisdom and virtue ,; and to exclude the bad ones ; 
and this desideratum is found in the republic of the United 
States of America. Its executive power is lodged in a 
single man, the president, who is commander in chief of the 
army and navy. Here we have some of the advantages of 
strength, despatch, and speedy execution, which are to be 
found in an absolute monarchy. 

The legislation of the government is entrusted to three dis- 
tinct powers, entirely independent of each other. First, the 
president of the United States. Secondly, the senators, cho- 
sen by the different state legislatures, usually men of age, 
wisdom, and experience, and distinguished for their skill in 
civil jurisprudence. They form the aristocracy of the nation ; 
and feel a kind of political independence : First, by being 
elected for a series of years ; and secondly, by net being so 
directly dependent upon popualr favor : and in them we look 
for profound experience and political sagacity, and for a check 
upon sudden changes by popular excitement. They too are 
tempered by the house of representatives, chosen directly by 
the people from among themselves ; making a kind of democ- 
cracy ; and this aggregate body dependent upon different 
sources for their offices, and attentive to different interests, 
form the legislative power of this nation. 

The president is supposed to guard specially, the interests 
of the whole nation ; the senators those of the several states 
from which they were elected ; and the representatives of 
their own constituents. As each branch of legislation is armed 
with a veto power, to repel dangerous innovation, any inten- 
tended evil by one branch can be defeated by the other two. 

Thus the three essential qualities of government are beauti- 
fully and happily blended. Were supreme power lodged in 



GOVERNMENT. ITS PHILOSOPHY". It 

any one of the three branches separately, we must be exposed 
to the inconveniences of either monarchy, aristocracy or de- 
mocracy ; and thus want two of the three ingredients of good 
polity ; either power to execute, wisdom to invent means, and 
suit them to the ends, or virtue to direct to the public good. If 
the president and senate held the reins of government alone, our 
laws might be providentially made, and vigorously executed, 
but they might not always have the good of the people in view. 
Were plenary power lodged in the president and house of 
representatives, we should lack the circumspection and medi- 
atory caution which the wisdom of the senators might afford : 
and were this supreme right of legislation lodged in the two 
houses only, without the veto power of the president upon 
their proceedings, they might be tempted to abolish the presi- 
dential office, divide the nation, and destroy the unity of the 
government. Hence the necessity of preserving the equilite 
rium between the different branches of legislation. 

We come now in the second place, to speak of the ten- 
dencies of the different forms of civil government. Thev 
are to an accumulation of power. Ah absolute monarchy in- 
clines to become more and more despotic. The reason origi- 
nates in the selfishness of human nature, for when the prince 
has the power to become a despot, the unrestrained disposition 
of man strongly inclines him to avail himself of the advantage; 
Many rulers have begun with mildness, but ended in tyranny : 
as Hazael king of Syria, or Nero who set fire to Rome that 
he might amuse himself with the wailings of the people, or 
Tiberius who delighted in torturing his subjects, or Caligula 
who murdered many of the populace with his own hands, and 
caused thousands guilty of no crime, to be cruelly butchered. 
Multitudes of others might be cited, who, like them, began 
with mildness, and promised to become the fathers and friends 
of their subjects, but who in the exercise of unrestrained power, 
gave a loose rein to their ambitious and ungodly passions, and 
became bloody despots, and the 1 wholesale murderers of their 1 

2 



IS CIVIL POLITY AND ORDER. 

race. Thus power is accumulative, and the thirst for accu- 
mulation is augmented by success; and proceeds onward in 
an increasing ratio till checked by force. The regal govern- 
ment of Rome was abolished by the forcible expulsion of 
Tarquin ; and king John of England ratified Magna Charta, 
at the point of the bayonet, when compelled by his barons. 

Aristocracies and all. officers of every government are 
strongly inclined to act for themselves, when their own per- 
gonal interests come in collision with the good of the peo- 
ple. In England the house of commons is elected unequally, 
and large numbers of the people have no voice in the choice 
oi* their rulers, as in some cases a few .electors of boroughs, 
which are gone to decay, send as many representatives as 
seventy thousand people in other parts of the kingdom. This 
has long been well known, but the commons have a veto power 
to prevent a change, and choose to exercise it. 

In the United States the members of congress receive eight 
dollars for every days attendance,. and eight for eyery twenty 
miles travel in going to, and returning from,. the seat of gov- 
ernment. This, since the introduction of steam power should 
be lessened, but they have the authority in their own hands, 
and refuse to do it. 

The same may be said of the franking privilege, which was 
originally confined to the time of the session of congress, sub- 
sequently extended to thirty days before, and thirty days after, 
and finally from thirty days after, to thirty days before, the 
next session, which in the aggregate includes the whole time. 
Thus they exercise their power, proving that its tendency is 
accumulative. 

A government in the hands of the people inclines to become 
more and more liberal, and if unsustained by patriotism and 
public virtue, will terminate in anarchy and ruin. While an 
absolute monarchy concentrates its strength, a republic, under 
the influence of party spirit, is strongly inclined to divide and 
scatter, . The., republic ol Athens, . warn. out, with, contending 



GOVERNMENT. ITS PHILOSOPHY. 19 

factions, and civil disorder, surrendered her liberties to Pisis- 
tratus. In the French revolution the excessive violence of 
the Jacobins had so brought popular liberty into disrepute, 
that all found it indispensably necessary to have a strong ex- 
ecutive government, to restore things to any degree of order 
and consistency. It was then declared that "unity of thought 
and action is a fundamental quality in the executive power." 
The tendency of popular governments to faction, anarchy and 
ruin, can only be successfully counteracted by corresponding 
political integrity, and by a firm determination to concentrate 
the strength of the people for sustaining public order. 

When the thirteen American colonies had become indepen- 
dent, and a new government was to be formed, some as John 
Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and their coadjutors favored' a 
more vigorous, and Thomas Jefferson and his partisans a more 
liberal form, when the latter being most popular prevailed. 
Since its establishment on those liberal principles it has been 
brought still nearer to the people. 

1. In the extension of the elective franchise. Once it was 
necessary in the State of New York, to be a freeholder worth 
fifty dollars, to vote for a member of the assembly, and worth 
two hundred and fifty dollars to vote for a- governor or senator. 
These restrictions are now taken off. 

2. In the same state in the election of justices 1 of the peace, 
who were at first appointed by the council of appointment, 
subsequently by the supervisors and judges, but are- now elec- 
ted by the people. 

3. A great advance has been made toward liberal principles, 
in the collection of debts. 

The first idea was, according to the feudal system; imprison-, 
ment in the county jail.- The next was to admit debtors to bail 
on the limits, a third law was made entirely abolishing imprison- 
ment for debt, fourthly, extending the amount of property free 
from execution, and fifthly, enacting a general bankrupt law.- 
Whilo this is- convenient for ono part of community, - it creates^ 



20 CIVIL POLITY AND ORDER. 

a loss of confidence in commercial transactions, throws sus- 
picion and distrust through the country, and greatly embarras- 
ses the operations of business men. They dare not make 
heavy investments, for if they act, and trust their customers, 
they must depend on their honor, and not the law, for pay- 
ment, as their property is mostly free from execution ; they 
cannot imprison the debtors body, nor put, it on the limits, and 
he may become bankrupt. 

To this increasing laxness in government may be added 
the strong desire with many to abolish capital punishment for 
capital crimes ; the anti-rent and nullification out breaks, and 
the triumphs of mobs and linch law over the law of the land. 

Should this general tendency to liberal government still 
keep moving onward, and should the laws become less and 
less vigorous, and should the spirit of insubordination to those 
laws continue to increase, without a corresponding increase 
of patriotism, and of moral and religious influence, the days 
of our political prosperity are soon numbered. 

Mr Jefferson said " I believe this the strongest government 
on earth. I believe it the only one, where every man, at 
the call of the laws would fly to the standard of the law, and 
would meet invasion of the public order as his own personal 
concern." This view presupposed a nation of patriots, who 
would fly at once to defend the law, and to sustain public 
order ; and in this view his position is just ; but let the oppo- 
site obtain, let mobocracy, insubordination and anarchy tri- 
umph ; and we have a specimen of the weakest government 
on earth ; the rights of the people maybe violated with impu- 
nity, honest industry has no guardian, and innocence no pro- 
tector, but the fickleness of popular caprice. The influx of a 
foreign population among us, sworn as they are in allegiance 
to a foreign power, is also threatening the perpetuity of our 
religious and political privileges. Dangers within and with- 
out are impending. It should not be concealed that it is the 
opinion of many discriminating men that the government of 



GOVERNMENT. ITS PHILOSOPHY. 21 

the United States is fast tending to anarchy ; and that a 
strong counteracting influence must soon be exerted, by the 
educational and moral influences of the benevolent societies 
of the age, and more than all by the power of the gospel of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, with its eternal sanctions, or we are 
politically undone. 

We here find the need of the adaptation of government to 
the moral condition of the people. With some nations moral 
restraint would avail nothing, for they are given over to the 
influence of their passions and appetites, and a government 
relying upon moral suasion, could not stand an hour. With 
them a government of compulsion and force is their only alter- 
native. An iron people must have iron laws. Those who 
surrender themselves to their vicious passions must be sub- 
jugated by force : for if that alone can ensure safety, the peo- 
ple will submit to be oppressed for the sake of being pro- 
tected. 

This is obvious from the success of the feodal system in 
strengthening the governments of a barbarous iron age, as 
it originated from the military policy of the Celtic nations, the 
Goths, Huns, etc. A distinguished English legal writer says : 
" Scarce had these northern conquerors established themselves 
in their new dominions, when the wisdom of their institutions 
as well as their personal valor alarmed all the princes of 
Europe, that is of those countries which had formerly been 
Roman provinces, but had revolted or were deserted by their 
old masters, in the general wreck of the empire. Wherefore 
most if not all of them thought it necessary to enter into the 
the same or a similar plan of policy. For, whereas, before 
the possessions of their subjects were perfectly allodial, (that 
is, wholly independent, and held of no superior at all,) now 
they parcelled out their royal territories, or persuaded their 
subjects to surrender up and retake their own landed property, 
under the like feodal obligations of military fealty, and thus 
in the compass of a. very few years the feodal constitution or 



22 CIVIL POLITY AND ORDER. 

the doctrine of tenure extended itself over all the western 
world." This perfect concentration of the strength of rthe 
people in the hands of a military ruler, was the only safety of 
that turbulent age* 

But when a nation has virtue enough to sustain an elective 
government that is the true form, and a military despotism 
would be oppressive, for no people should be taxed to compel 
them to do right, when they are willing to do right without 
compulsion. 

The permanency of the present form of government in the 
United States has frequently been questioned, but if the requi- 
site amount of patriotism and public virtue shall be maintained 
its perpetuity will doubtless be secured, otherwise it will fall. 

Hence it becomes the duty of all lovers of freedom to 
cluster around the tree of liberty, to ,exert their quota of in- 
fluence to sustain law and order, that they in their turn may 
be protected, and that the blessings of our mild institutions 
.may descend to our posterity. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OP ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

Its Necessity and Nature. 

The church of God is the most exalted society in the 
world. It originated in heaven, and heaven is the place of 
its everlasting destination. It is connected with the best 
interests of men in time, and the fadeless taurels of its votaries 
will cluster around the throne Of God on high. All other 
societies are natural, this is supernatural. Being unique in 
its structure, spiritual in its nature, and perpetual in duration ; 
though 'evanescent on earth, it will outlive all other societies, 
overleap all the battlements of time, and forever survive the 
universal wreck of worlds. All that is truly valuable in this 
life, and high and honorable in the life to come, is connected 
with it ; for it joins God, angels, and holy men together, and 
embraces all true believers of every " nation, and kindred 
and people, and tongue." Christ loves the church and gave 
himself for it, and with his sweat, and tears, and precious, 
blood, he continually mingles his intercessions around the 
throne of God, in its behalf. The apostle calls it a " glorious'" 
church, there is a glory in it, and a glory all around it, and 
no glory like it ; it is glorious in its Author, and glorious in 
its end, glorious in its prospects of perpetuity and enlarge- 
ment in its militant state, and glorious in its final victories in 
its triumphant state. Every thing appertaining to it is im- 
portant now and forever. Its good government is inseparably 
connected with its psace, purity, and honor; in it :all .tire 



24 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

world are interested, and to this point we would call the rea-> 
ders attention. 

The necessity of some kind of church government is 
clearly obvious. Dr. Potter of England well observes, that 
••no society can long exist without power to do all things 
which are necessary to its own preservation and well govern- 
ment ; and therefore it having appeared that the church is a 
societv instituted bv God. and designed to last till the world's 
end. there can be no doubt but that he has invested it with 
all the powers which the nature of such a society requires." 

This necessity of ecclesiastical, government with plenary 
er lodged somewhere to recgive members; to hear and 
try complaints against delinquents, and to expel the incorri- 
gible, is clearlv stated bv Mr* Watson. " The church of 
Christ being a visible and permanent society, bound to observe 
certain rites, and to obey certain rules, the existence of gov- 
ernment in it is necessarily supposed.. All religious rites, 
suppose order, all order direction and control, and these a 
directive and controling power. Again : all laws are nuga-- 

y "without enforcement, in the present mixed and imperfect 
state of society ; and all enforcement supposes an executive. 
If baptism be the door of admission into the church, some 
must- judge of the fitness of candidates, and administrators of 
the rite must be appointed;, if the Lord's Supper must be 
partaken of. the times and mode are to be determined, trie 
qualifications of communicants judged of, and the administra- 

q placed in suitable hands ; if worship must be social 
and public, here- again there must be an appointment of times, 
an order, and an administration : if the word of God is to be 
read and preached, then readers and preachers are necessarv ; 
if the continuance of any one in the fellowship of Christians 

conditional upon good; conduct, so that the purity and credit 
of the church may be guarded, then the power of enforcing 
discipline must be lodged somewhere. Thus government 
ilows necessarily from the very nature of. the institution. o£/ 



ITS NECESSITY AND NATURE.. 25 

the Christian church ; and since this institution) lias the au- 
thority of Christ and his apostles, it is not to be supposed, 
that its government was left unprovided for; and if they have 
in fact made such a provision, it is no more a matter of mere 
option with Christians whether they will be subject to govern- 
ment in the church than it is optional with them to confess 
Christ by becoming its members."— Institutes, Part IV. 
Chap. I. 

Dr. Miller says*. "Even in, the^ perfectly holy and harmo- 
nious society of heaven, there is government ; that is, there is 
law and authority, under which the whole celestial family is 
united in perfect love, and unmingled enjoyment. Much 
more important and indispensable is government among fallen 
depraved men, among whom; ' it is impossible but that offen- 
ces will come,' and to whomethe discipline of scriptural and 
pure ecclesiastical rule, is one of the most precious means of 
grace. To think of maintaining any society, ecclesiastical 
or civil,, without government,, in this depraved world, would 
be to contradict every principle of reason and experience, as 
well as Scripture." 

Many efforts to form, and perpetuate churches without effi- 
cient governments have been made within a few years, but 
they have failed of success. Many are impatient of restraint, 
and will not be subject to church order ; they call the New 
'Testament their discipline, and of course all understand it to 
suit themselves. . But they are short lived, their cry of liberty 
soon dies away in the distance, like Jonah's gourd they soon 
wither, and their very existence becomes matter of history, 
unimportant, except to teach the succeeding navigator where 
the rocks are located.. 

The nature of church government next demands our at- 
tention. 

1. It is spiritual As the " kingdom is not of this world so 
its government is not secular, but is concerned wholly with 



26 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

spiritual things. It has no right to take cognizance of tem- 
poral matters, or to interfere with civil or political affairs." 

2. It is scriptural. No requirement can be made of any 
member of the church except what is expressly taught in the 
Bible, or what may be reasonably inferred from it. 

3. Church government as of the moral kind, and consists of 
admonition, entreaty, warning and excommunication. It can 
exercise no authority over any but its own members, and has 
no right even to touch their person or property. It can com- 
pel none to be members; if they become such it is by their 
own voluntary choice, and they .-are not bound to submit to 
church discipline any longer than they choose to do so, in 
view of their duties to God. 

4. Church polity is of an advisory, soothing and saving 
nature. Its first design is to save men. It flies with dripping 
tears, and tender sympathies to reclaim and save a fallen 
brother. " Go and tell him his fault between thee and him 
alone," says our Lord; go " first," before he is exasperated 
by being made a subject of public reproach ; go " alone," 7 ' 
before he is tempted from pride to become obstinate, and 
thus reclaim and save his soul ; but let us go with kindness, 
and charity, to preserve our own ^souls from anger, and thus 
sav« ourselves. This is the command of Christ. Christians 
are bound to exercise tenderness and sympathy toward their 
fellows, they should be as much as possible of the same mind 
and judgment; they are brethren; and should love each 
other with tender affection. 

5. Church ^government is corrective and excommunicative. 
This n iast and most desperate alternative is imperative upon 
the church, and it is criminally defective without it : but all 
disabilities, penalties, anathemas, inquisitions, burning of here- 
tics, and delivering men over to the secular arm, to be pun- 
ished for offences against the church, are utterly repugnant 
to the spirit of the gospel, and are a wanton usurpation and 



ITS NECESSITY AND NATURE. '27 

oppression. The church cannot employ force, or use carnal 
weapons. All it can do and all it ought to do is, to separate 
delinquents from its pale, according to the command in 1 Cor. 
5. 7 : " Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a 
new lump." They are thus remanded into the world " with 
heathen men and publicans'" to be treated with benevolence 
and pity, and to be received again on genuine and hearty re- 
pentance. 



CHAPTER V. 

OP ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 
Its Forms. — Episcopal, Presbyterial, Congregational. 

The principal forms of church government which have 
obtained since the introduction of the gospel are the Episco- 
pal,- Presbyterial, and Cgsngregational,. other forms being 
modifications. 

EPISCOPAL polity maintains that there are three distinct 
orders of ministers in the church : first, bishops, secondly, 
presbyters, priests,, or elders, and thirdly, deacons ; and that 
the bishops have a superiority over the other orders. 

Episcopacy embraces the churches of Rome and England 
in the west of Europe, the Greeks and Armenians in the east, 
the Roman church in North and South America, and the 
Protestant Episcopal and Moravian churches in the United 
Slates. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church in America is founded 
on the primitive principle that bishops and presbyters are the 
same in order, but that the oversight is committed to those 
who are by virtue of their office called superintendents or 
bishops. 

The PRESBYTERIAL form of government affirms that 
there is but one order of ministers as established by Christ 
and his apostles, that all being ambassadors, are equal by their 
commission, and that bishop and elder or presbyter are the 
same in name, and office, and their terms synonymous. 
They contend that the church should be governed by presby- 



ITS FORMS. 29 

teries, synods, and general assemblies. The presbyterial 
form obtains most extensively in the kirk in Scotland, and 
in the Presbyterian church in the United States. 

The Accommodation plan which is extensively adopted 
in Western New York and Northern Ohio, is a system of 
union entered into by the Presbyterian and Congregational 
churches in 1801, where they unite in one church, and have 
a standing committee for the trial of delinquents, and if the 
person condemned be a presbyterian he may appeal to the 
Presbytery, whose decree shall be final, unless the church 
grant a further appeal to the Synod, or to the General Assem- 
bly ; and if he be a Congregationalist he may appeal to the 
church. 

The GONGREGATIONAL form recognizes no church 
government except that of a single congregation, under the di- 
rection of one pastor, and they decide all controversies. They 
however recognize a council of an advisory kind, but not 
possessing appellate jurisdiction. 

The Independents are similar to the Congregationali^ts, 
except that they decide all difficulties entirely within them- 
selves. 

Each of these lay some claim to follow the primitive form 
of church government, but the question whether the scriptures 
lay down any particular form which all are required to fol- 
low is a contested point ; many suppose that each church is 
at liberty to establish its polity on the principles of expediency, 
and that no one should claim to follow an infallible rule laid 
down by our Lord or his apostles, because no such rule is to 
be found. Others contend that a particular and definite form is 
clearly inferred from the scriptures, that this form is essential 
to the existance of a church, and that where it is wanting 
there is no church. 

Those who mostly advocate an infallible precedent in the 
primitive churches are the Roman Catholics, and high church 
Episcopalians, on the one extreme ; and the Congregational- 



30 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

ists and: Independents on the other. We now proceed to 
adduce the proof of their exclusiveness, taken from their own 
authors. The Catholics unchurch all Protestants of course, 
hence we proceed to the high church Episcopalians. 

Bishop Taylor says, " Without the offices of episcopacy no 
priest, no ordination, no consecration of the sacrament, no 
absolution, no rite or sacrament legitimately can be performed 
in order to eternity." — Episcopacy asserted pp. 197. 

A passage or two from Pusey, Newman, Froude, and their 
coadjutors might be quoted here. " I fear we have neglected 
the real ground on which our authority is built — our apostoli* 
cal descent." — Tracts for the Times, No. 1. pp. 2. 

" A. person not commissioned from the bishop may use the 
wo i:ds of baptism, and< sprinkle or bathe with the water, on 
earth, but there is no promise from Christ that such a man 
shall admit souls to the kingdom of heaven. A person not 
commissioned may break bread, and pour out wine, and pre- 
tend to give the Lord's Supper, but it can afford no comfort 
to any to receive it at his hands, because there is no warrant 
from Christ to lead communicants to suppose that while he 
does so here on earth, they will be partakers in the Savior's 
heavenly body and blood." — No. Sb.-pp. 2. 

Dr. Hooke, vicar of Leeds, -says, " Unless Christ be spiritu- 
ally present with the ministers of religion in their services, 
those services will be vain. But the only ministrations to 
which he has promised his prescence is to those of the bishops 
who are successors of the first commissioned apostles, and the 
other clergy acting' under their sanction, and by their au- 
thority." 

We might multiply extensive quotations from Oxford 
divinity, all of which is impregnated with the same principles,, 
but shall give the true state of the question as condensed by 
Mr. Powell in his able work* on -apostolic succession, to which-> 
we would refer the reader. 

""■The; succession divines maintain:- — 



ITS FORMS. 31 

L That bishops are, by divine right, an order superior to, 
distinct from, and having powers, authority and rights incom- 
patible with presbyters, simply as presbyters : 

2.. That the bishops of this, order are the sole successors of 
the apostles as ordainers of other ministers and. governors 
both of pastors and people : 

3. That this succession is a personal succession, viz., that, 
it is to be traced through an historical series of persons, valid- 
ly ordained as bishops, transmitting, in an unbroken line, 
this episcopal order and power to the latest generations : 

4. That no ministry is valid except it have this episcopal 
ordination ; and that all ordinances and sacraments are vain, 
except they be administered by such episcopally ordained 
ministers." 

Mr. Powell in his invaluable work then proceeds to deny 
all these positions, and says "we shall show, 

1. That bishops and presbyters are, by divine right, the 
same order ; and that presbyters, by divine right, have the 
same power and authority as bishops ; that ordination by pres- 
byters is equally valid with that of bishops ; and consequently 
that the ministry of all the reformed Protestant churches" is 
equally valid with that of any Episcopal church : 

2. That presbyters are as much the successors of the apostles 
as bishops are : 

3. That a succession of the truth of doctrine, of faith and 
holiness, of the pure word of God, and of the sacraments duly 
administered, is the only essential. succession necessary to a 
christian church : 

4. That all are true christian churches where such a min- 
istry and such ordinances are found." 

The author then proceeds, and, in a work of 348 pages, 
exhibiting profound research, he shows the utter fallacy of the 
whole succession scheme; and does' the subject ample justice. 

The principal point to which we object, as members of the - 
great-christian family, jstheii*. despotic- exclusiveness.. Should; 



32 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY* 

its advocates contend for the lawfulness of their own ecclesi- 
astical arrangements, without excluding all other churches 
and ministers from performing the duties which God has com- 
mitted to them, we should have no special objection ; but when 
they set up an order of bishops jure divino, with the sole and 
exclusive power of ordaining ministers, and governing the 
the church to the end of the world, and when they declare an 
unbroken line of succession to be absolutely essential to the 
being of a church, and that they and the Roman Catholics 
are in that succession, and no others ; we protest against such 
intolerance and bigotry. It is incongenial with the benevo- 
lence of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

It is however due to the Episcopal church to say that all 
of them are not thus exclusive, but many assert that their form 
is not absolutely essential to the existence of a church, yet 
that it is expedient, and not being commanded nor forbidden 
in scripture, they are at liberty to make their selection, and 
adopt such a polity as they please. 

Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton New Jersey, speaks of one 
class of Episcopalians who ' : suppose that the government of 
the church by bishops, as a superior order to presbyters* was 
sanctioned by apostolic example, and that it is the duty of all 
churches to imitate this example* But while they consider 
episcopacy as necessary to the perfection of the church, they 
grant that it is by no means necessary to her existence ; and 
accordingly without hesitation, acknowledge as true churches 
of Christ many in which the Episcopal doctrine is rejected, 
and Presbyterian principles made the basis of eccleiastical 
government. The advocates of this opinion, have been nu- 
merous and respectable, both among the clerical and lay mem- 
bers of the Episcopal churches in England and the United 
States. In this list appear the venerable names of Bishop Hall, 
Bishop Downham, Bishop Bancroft, Bishop Andrews, Arch- 
bishop Usher, Bishop Forbes, the learned Chillingworth, 
Archbishop Wake, Bishop Hoadley> and many more." 



ITS FORMS. 33 

He mentions another class of Episcopalians which " con- 
sists of those who believe that neither Christ nor his apostles 
laid down any particular form of ecclesiastical government to 
which the church is bound to adhere in all ages. That every 
church is free consistently with the divine will, to frame her 
constitution agreeably to her own views, to the state of society 
and to the exigencies of particular times. These prefer the 
Episcopal government, and some of them believe that it was 
the primitive form ; but they consider it as resting on the 
ground of human expediency alone, and not of divine 
appointment. This is well known to have been the opin- 
ion of Archbishop Cranmer, Grindal and Whitgift, of Bishop 
Leigh ton, of Bishop Jewel, of Dr. Whitaker, of Bishop 
Reynolds, of Archbishop Tillotson, of Bishop Burnet, of 
Bishop Croft, of Dr. Stillingfleet, and of a long list of the 
most learned and pious divines of the church of England 
from the reformation down to the present day." 

Dr. Low says, " No certain form of government is pre- 
scribed in the word, only general rules are laid down." — 
Archbishop Whitgift declares, "That the form of discipline 
is not particularly and by name set down in Scripture. No 
kind of government is expressed in the word, or can neces- 
sarily be concluded from thence." Bishop Bridges affirms, 
that " God hath not expressed the form of church govern- 
ment, at least not so as to bind us to it :" and Dr. Cosins 
says, that " All churches have not the same form of disci- 
pline, neither is it necessary that they should, seeing it can- 
not be proved that any certain particular form of church 
government is commended to us by the word of Cod."— 
Even King James himself, who said " No bishop, no king," 
also declared, "That the civil power in any nation hath the 
right of prescribing what external form of church govern- 
ment it please, which doth most agree to the civil form of 
government in the state." 

The most celebrated ecclesiastical writer in favor of this 

3 



34 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

view, is Dr.. Edward Stillingfleet, subsequently Bishop S'til- 
lingfleet, who published that invaluable work called " Stilling- 
fleet's Irenicum" in London, 1662, the object of which was 
to discuss the subject of church government, and moderate 
the extravagant pretensions of high churchmen on the one 
extreme, and the fiery zeal of those on the other, who were 
for destroying episcopacy altogether. A new edition of this 
work was got up in Philadelphia, pp.. 471, 1842, from which 
our extracts are taken. 

He says, "any one particular form of government in the 
church, is neither expressed in any direct terms by Christ, 
nor can be deduced by just consequence ; therefore, no such 
form of government is instituted by Christ."— Irenicum Amr. 
Edit. pp. 208.. 

" The precepts of the gospel requiring a right manage- 
ment of the work, are equally applicable to either form. — 
Taking heed to tfre flock over which God hath made them 
overseers, is equally a duty ; whether by flock we under- 
stand either the particular church of Ephesus, or the adjacent 
churches of Asia ; whether by overseers we understand some 
acting over others, or all joining' together in equality. So 
exhorting, reproving, preaching. in season and out of sea- 
son, watching over the flock as they that must give an ac- 
count ; laying hands suddenly on no man ; rebuking not an 
elder but under two or three witnesses, and whatever precepts 
of this nature we read in the epistles of Timothy and Titus, 
may be equally applicable to men acting in either of these 
two forms of government ; there being no precept occurring 
in all those epistles prescribing to Timothy, whether he must 
act only as consul in senatu with the consent of the presby- 
tery, or whether by his sole power he should determine what 
was the common interest,. and concern of those: churches he 
was the superintendent over." — lb. 210. 

By this we learn that. the. essentials which, am necessary 



ITS FORMS. 35 

for the' preservation of society are revealed in Scripture, but 

NOT THE FORM. 

The author further declares, "that a mere apostolical prac- 
tice being supposed is not sufficient of itself for the founding 
an unalterable and perpetual right for that form of govern- 
ment in the church which is supposed to be founded on that 
practice." 

His reasons condensed are as follows : 

First, because many things were done by the apostles 
without any intention of obliging any who succeeded them 
to do the same. 

Secondly, The apostles did many things upon particular 
occasions, emergencies, and circumstances, which things so 
done cannot bind by virtue of their doing them any further 
than a parity of reason doth conclude the same things to be 
done in the same circumstances." He quotes Paul's celi- 
bacy, the community of goods, etc. 

Thirdly, offices that were of apostolical appointment are 
grown wholly out of use in the church without men's looking 
upon themselves as bound by them." He cites the office of 
deaconess in the church, and shows that as it is not useful, it 
is by common consent laid aside, which is as much as to say, 
the apostolical usuage is not now binding. 

Fourthly. " Rites and customs apostolical are altered, 
therefore men do not think that practice doth bind." 

He then shews pp. 369 to 406 : That the churches polit)^ 
in the ages after the apostles, proves, that no certain unaltera- 
ble form was delivered to them ; and the rise of the power of 
the church governors, without order from the apostles, but by 
the increase of the churches, is cited as evidence. He speaks 
of them, First, when churches and cities were of the same 
extent : Secondly, when churches took in the adjoining terri- 
tories with the villages belonging to the cities : Thirdly, 
when several cities with their villages did associate for church 
government in the same province : and Fourthly, when 



36 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

several provinces did associate for government in the Ro- 
man empire. 

These views of Dr. Stillingfleet have prevailed extensively 
for nearly two centuries, so that Dr. Miller said about twenty 
years since, that those who reject high church principles " em- 
brace at least nineteen parts out of twenty of all the Episco- 
palians in Great Britain and the United States ; while, so far 
as can be learned from the most respectable writings, and 
other authentic sources of information, it is only the small re- 
maining proportion who hold the extravagant opinions" of the 
others. This was the state of things till the rise of Puseyism, 
which has so changed public sentiment that, Mr. Powell in his 
"Essay on Apostolical succession," pp. 11, says, " A spirit 
of exclusiveness is, indeed, very general among the clergy of 
the established church." " An opinion, too, of the divine right 
of episcopacy has spread extensively in the church of England : 
most of its clergy seem willing to believe it." These exclu- 
sive and intolerant high church pretentions are evidently op- 
posed to the very existence of all other protestant churches in 
Chrisendom, as well as to the doctrine and spirit of the Holy 
Scriptures ; and therefore they should be exposed and refuted. 

Thus while they on one extreme assume to be the only true 
church ; the Congregationalists and Independents on the other 
extreme, many of them, claim that each society is a seperate 
church, independent ot all others, that the form of their govern- 
ment is laid down in Scripture, that different churches and 
districts may not adopt different forms, but that theirs, and no 
other, was instituted, and unalterably established by our Lord 
and his apostles. 

We cite their own authors as proof. " Every church was 
authorized, by the teachings of Christ and his apostles, to elect 
its own officers, to receive, exclude, and restore members, and 
to transact all business appropriate to their church organiza- 
tion ; being amenable to no higher ecclesiastical court, but to 
Jesus Christ only, the supreme Head and Lawgiver of the 



ITS FORMS. 37 

churches. And, therefore, all Church Sessions, Consistories, 
Classes, Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies, acting 
as ecclesiastical courts, and all Bishops and Popes, and other 
ecclesiastics, claiming jurisdiction over the decisions of the 
churches of Christ, are mere human inventions, employed for 
the avowed design of making the organization of the churches 
more perfect than it was in the apostolic times, and consequent- 
ly more perfect than Christ made it, — are usurpations of the 
prerogative of the Head of the churches, and of the unalien- 
able rights of his disciples, which he has vested in every 
church." — Congregational Tracts — Published by the Con- 
regational Tract Society, of Western Neio York, No. 2. 
pp. 8. 9. 

" We have no right to change that form of church govern- 
ment which was established by Christ and his apostles." "It 
cannot be a matter of indifference with Congregational minis- 
ters and churches, whether they embrace and advocate that 
form of church government which vests the authority where 
Christ has, in each individual church ; or the opposite system, 
which places it in one man, or a selected few." — lb. pp. 11. 

" Every step, in which the authority is removed from the 
whole brotherhood of the church, is incipient papacy, — a sure 
advance towards the complete enthronement of the man of 
sin." — lb. pp. 1*2. 

Speaking in praise of the puritans, and of their form of 
church government, he says it is " always Congregational" 
and also declares that " They contended, that the church al- 
ways sins when she adopts any other form of church govern- 
ment." — No. 1. pp. 2. " Presbyterianism is the incipient 
stage of popery." — lb. pp. 4. " We certainly cannot insti- 
tute some other form ot government and discipline and be 
guiltless." — ChadwicW s defence of Congregationalism, pp. 4. 

Having now before me about forty volumes solely on church 
government, advocating conflicting doctrines, I find that none 
of them prove that a particular form was instituted by our Lord 



38 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

and his apostles. After examining several of their standard 
authors on apostolic succession, from the massy octavo of Dr. 
Potter published in 1711, vindicating the supremacy of chris- 
tian princes, to the smaller work of John E. Cooke, M. D. 
published in 1829 ; no such doctrine was proved by the scrip- 
tures. They indeed professed to do so, but did not succeed. 
If a particular form is laid down in the Bible let some apostolic 
successor come forward and tell us where, give us a " Thus 
saith the Lord" that we may all read and understand. The 
honest truth is that Dr. Potter's work was evidently written 
to sustain the union of church and state in England, to put 
down dissenters, to please princes, to sustain the " Holy x\lli- 
ance" and gratify the aristocracy of Europe. 

On the other hand the Congregationalists and Independents 
are determined to mould their form of church polity according 
to the principles of liberal governments. All must bend to 
that standard or break. They can see no other form in the 
Bible, and that is expressly enjoined, Both we consider on 
extremes. Ministers should stay where God places them, and 
do the work which he assigns them ; they should not lord it 
over God's heritage, neither should the church degrade the 
ministry and take away all their authority, as " ambassadors 
for Christ." Either would be injurious if not fatal to the com- 
mon cause of Christianity, 



CHAPTER VI. 

OP EPISCOPACY AS FOUND IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 
Its Origin and Progress. 

It is the government and not the doctrines of the Roman 
church, with which we are now concerned. Indeed their 
doctrines, though theologically absurb, are not specially dan- 
gerous to the protestant world, except so far as they are con- 
nected with their government. For instance, the belief in 
transubstantiation, the invocation of saints, the seven sacra- 
ments, and the worshiping of images are harmless so far as the 
rights of others are concerned ; but when they amalgamate 
them with their church polity, and swear perpetual obedience 
to the pope of Rome, assert his infallibility, and his right to 
universal dominion, they then come on ground where all prot- 
estants are interested. 

In briefly describing the government of the Roman church, 
we advert, in the first place, to its origin. A church was 
formed by the apostle Paul in Rome, beside the throne of the 
Csesars. Its first employment was to bring the city and its 
environs to the faith of Christ; and then to convert the towns 
and villages that surrounded the city, and form them into 
churches. They would naturally maintain a union with the 
metropolitan church, from the gratitude they owed her, and 
from the necessity of referring their cases of difficulty to 
their enlightened judgment and superior skill ; and thus we 
see the natural and gradual rise of diocesan bishops. This 
voluntary union soon degenerated into dependence, and Rome, 
by her seniority, regarded as a rightful prerogative, what had 
been yielded in deference to maternal precedence. 



40 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

The rank of the city over which the bishops presided in the 
second century designated the amount of consideration to which 
they were entitled ; and as Rome was mistress of the world, 
the fountain of laws, and the metropolis of the nations, in which 
were conjoined wealth and power ; she ambitiously preferred 
her claims, and the weakness of human nature voluntarily and 
gradually resigned them. 

As Christianity increased and spread through the realm, 
there were bishops in every city whose jurisdiction extended 
to the surrounding towns and villages ; and as the Roman 
empire contained about one hundred and twenty provinces, 
each province embracing many cities, with bishops, so the 
metropolis or mother city of each province had a metropolitan 
or archbishop, who ruled over bishops in his province, as the 
bishops governed the priests in their dioceses. And thus the 
rise of Archbishops. Even these too were governed by patri- 
archs or primates, whose jurisdiction extended o«er several 
provinces, and whose decisions in spiritual government at 
some -stages of the church, were final. When the Saracens 
overran the other dioceses, Rome was left at one time with- 
out an opponent, with the christian world rallying around her. 

When the conflicting sects of the east were so frequently 
distracted among themselves, and endeavored to gain an ad- 
vantage over their antagonists by the support which an interest 
at Rome would secure,, she joyfully extended her assistance, 
and received one after another into her extended arms. Prais- 
ed and flattered by sycophants, consulted by the other churches 
and courted by princes, she filed these voluntary compliments 
as documents of her authority, and employed her accumula- 
ting power for its Own extension, Thus exalted, and aspiring, 
the doctrine of "the church," and the " necessity for its visible 
unity." together with its need of an "outward representation 
of that unity," soon prevailed ; the primacy of St. Peter wa3 
invented, and the church began to recognize this pretended 
successor, as her rightful and visible head. 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 41 

To sustain these proud pretensions the princes of those peri- 
lous times, on their tottering thrones adhered to the church to 
secure its protection for themselves, and thus fostered by am- 
bition, and ignorant of the spirituality of religion : but desiring 
its external pomp ; the blinded and manacled world delivered 
up its liberties, and became the serfs of the Roman pontiff. 
The avalanche increased in strength and momentum, till the 
pope of Rome claimed the whole earth for his dominion ; and 
profanely received from an enslaved church the appellation of 
" our Lord God the Pope." 

This deference was not always voluntary, but what could 
not be accomplished by church authority could easily be achie- 
ved by the sword, for the mitre and triple crown were con- 
joined. 

In the twelfth century a few manuscript copies of the Bible 
were translated into the vulgar tongue, and the Waldenses, 
Albigenses,vLollards and Sclavonians caught the fire of divine 
truth, renounced the errors of Popery, and were led to the 
stake, the gallows and the flames. Iniquity still kept increa- 
sing, and just proir to the reformation it had arrived at a fear- 
ful height. Bellarmine, a standard author,, and an avowed 
champion of popery says, " For some years before the Luther- 
an and Calvinistic heresies were published,, there was not (as 
cotemporary authors testify) any severity in ecclesiastical 
judicatories, any discipline with regard to morals, any knowl- 
edge of sacred literature, any reverence for divine things ; 
there was not almost any religion remaining." 

Leo the X. when raised to the papal throne, finding the 
church revenues exhausted, to gratify his love of splendor and 
magnificence, among other devices had recourse to the sale 
of indulgencies, and the chief agent in retailing them in Sax- 
ony was Tetzel, a Dominican friar, of licentious morals, but 
of noisy and popular eloquence. He executed his commission 
with great zeal and success, but with little discretion or de- 
cency, and among the credulous multitude he carried on for 



-42 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

some time an extensive and lucrative traffic, by greatly mag- 
nifying the benefit of their indulgencies, and disposing of them 
at a very cheap rate. The extravagance of his assertions, as 
well as the irregularities of his conduct, however, gave public 
offense, for the princes were irritated at seeing their vassals 
drained of so much wealth to replenish the treasury of a pro- 
fuse pontiff, much of which was spent in drunkeness and de- 
bauchery, and men of piety were grieved at the delusion of 
the people, who were taught to rely, for the pardon of their 
sins, on their purchased indulgencies, and not on faith and 
holiness. 

Those illustrious reformers who opposed the corruptions of 
that dissolute age were guided by the word of life, they studied 
it with avidity and delight, and found themselves furnished by 
it with sufficient armor for the mighty contest, in which they 
were engaged. They found in the New Testament, what 
Christianity was, their discoveries were received with wonder, 
and read with eagerness, and all attempts to prevent the cir- 
culation of the Scriptures, and fetter the press, were abortive. 
The Indices Expurgatorii pointing out the works which were 
condemned, and to read which was heresy, only increased the 
desire for their perusal ; and in the sixteenth century under 
the perilous labors of Erasmus, Luther, and Melanchton in 
Germany, Zwingle in Switzerland, Knox in Scotland, and 
their coadjutors, the great reformation was accomplished. Its 
benefits to mankind are incalculable, the clouds which had so 
long obscured divine truth were dispelled, and man was re- 
stored to that treasure which is able to make him wise unto 
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The light shone with 
cloudless lustre through the most powerful and refined nations 
of Europe. 

When the papal authority was thus shaken to its centre an- 
other expedient was formed which was the founding the order 
of the Jesuits. This was done in 1540 by Ignatius Loyola, 
its projector, and resulted in great temporal benefits to the 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH GF ROME. 43 

Roman pontiff. Their government was strictly monarchical, 
they were the soldiers of the pope, sent forth to watch the 
transactions of the world, and cultivate the friendship of per- 
sons of rank and fortune in every nation. Lax, even to li- 
centiousness, in morals ; but vigorous, even to despotism, in 
discipline ; assiduous in studies, unwearied in perseverance ; 
acting in secret, and in concert, they were generally success- 
ful, and supplanted their opponents, became the spiritual di- 
rectors of the higher ranks, established themselves in every 
papal court, obtained the chief direction of the education of 
the youth in every catholic country in Europe, and became 
confessors of nearly all its noblest monarchs. In spite of their 
vow of poverty they became extensively opulent. Their flex- 
ible system of morals, and their covert tricks and stratagems 
were proverbial. Jesuitism was but another name for artifice, 
and secret intrigue, which finally rendered them odious to all 
Europe, and one kingdom after another banished them., till 
1773, when their order was suppressed by pope Clement XIV. 

This repose to the world continued only about forty years ; 
for when the throne, and temporalities, of which the pope had 
been deprived by Napoleon, and the Frenee revolution, were 
restored to him by Louis XVIII and the allies in 1814, on 
resuming the government pope Pius VII immediately restored 
the order of the Jesuits and the inquisition, so that Roman- 
ism is now measurably reinstated in its ancient authority and 
splendor. There are at present four orders of monks and 
priests, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Augustinians 
and the Jesuits, each of which has a head or general near the 
Vatican. 

The Catholic church according to their own shewing is in 
a state of great prosperity. The " Laity's Directory for 1845 
in giving the statistics of the church says pp. 188 "There are 
now throughout the world 147 Catholic archbishops, 584 bish- 
ops, 71 vicars apostolical, 9 prefects, 3 apostolicals and 3267 
missionaries. The number of the faithful may amount to 



44 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

200,000,000. In the course of the present century (from 
1800 to 1842) 40 new Episcopal sees have been created." 

The late pope was Gregory XVI, elected to the pontificate 
in 1831, and previous to his promotion to that office he was 
Cardinal Capellani of Austria. He died, June 1st 1846, aged 
81. The present pope is Pius IX, was elected on the third 
of June 1848, and before that event he was Cardinal Giovan- 
ni Maria Mastai Ferretti, Archbishop of Imola. 



CHAPTER VII. 

OP EPISCOPACY AS POUND IN THE CHURCH OF ROME 
Its Strength. 

When we look abroad upon the wide spread empire of pope- 
ry, which has so long withstood the ravages of nations, and the 
revolutions of empires ; and when we survey its vast dimen- 
sions, we instinctively inquire, what has secured its perpe- 
tuity % for we must acknowledge that some of its internal or 
external machinery or appurtenances somewhere, must be 
adapted to that purpose. 

We perceive that it cannot be its doctrines, for they give 
the direct lie to all the senses, and tell us that the pope is in- 
fallible, and that the body and blood, soul, and divinity of our 
Lord Jesus Christ are in the bread and wine after consecra- 
tion by a priest, and every body knows, or should know bet- 
ter ; hence their strength is not in their doctrines. It can- 
not be in their observances requiring feasts, and fasts, and 
mummeries, nearly every day in the year. It cannot consist 
in their piety and devotion to God, for many of their leaders 
for ages have been known to be infidels. Leo X writing to 
Cardinal Bembo said, " It is well known how profitable to us 
and to ours has been the fable of Christ." And Blanco White, 
formerly confessor to Ferdinand VII, king of Spain, but now 
a clergyman of the church of England declares " that at the 
time when he exercised the priestly office he was an Atheist* 
and that he never knew a single literary man, in Spain, either 
priest or layman that was not an Atheist." Other writers 



46 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

assert the same of Italy. Whence then this power of self- 
preservation,, and self-defence ? We answer, most obviously 
it consits in, their form of government. It is in its military 
formation the- strongest ecclesiastical establishment in the 
world. It is a pure universal despotism, in which the civil 
and ecclesiastical powers are blended, and concentrated in one 
man, the pope, the supreme head and pretended successor of 
St. Peter ;, clothed with absolute power, amenable to no au- 
thority, accountable at no tribunal,, and dependent on nothing 
but the sword. He claims to be " vicegerent of God," " su- 
preme over all mortals," "over all emperors, kings, princes," 
potentates and people," " king of kings, and lord of lords." 
He styles himself "the divinely appointed dispenser of spirit- 
ual and temporal punishments," armed with power to " depose 
emperors and kings, and absolve subjects from their oaths of 
allegiance." He is attended by seventy cardinals as his privy 
council, in imitation of the seventy disciples of our Lord, and 
keeps his court in great splendor in the palace of the Vatican 
in Rome. 

Throughout Italy he is a temporal as well as spiritual sov- 
ereign, and by virtue of his title of catliolic or universal, he 
sways his spiritual sceptre over all the catholic world. In 
this vast politico ecclesiastico establishment, the civil and ec- 
clesiastical offices are so blended that the pope is king, a car- 
dinal is secretary of state, the consistory of cardinals is the 
cabinet council,, the ministry and viceroys of provinces ; the 
archbishops are ambassadors to foreign courts, the bishops are 
judges, and magistrates, and the road to perferment to most, if 
not all the great offices of state, is through the priesthood. 
The government is erected on the military system of the dark 
ages ; and in its formation we have a specimen of the strength 
of the barons of Europe under the feodal system. Here large 
districts of land were allotted by the conquering! general to the 
superior officers of the army, and by them dealt out in smaller 
quantities to- the. inferior officers,, ancb most deserving, soldiers,. 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 47 

on* condition that the possessor should do service faithfully, 
both at home, and in the wars, to him by whom they were 
given ; for which purpose he took the oath of fealty, and in 
case of a breach of this condition, and oath, by not performing 
stipulated service, or by deserting their lord in battle, the 
lands were again to revert to the grantor. Thus the military 
rulers always had an army already enlisted, and prepared, 
not only for the defence of their own property, but for the 
whole of their territories, and the strength of their govern- 
ments was always manifest by the vigor with which they 
maintained their conquests.. The papal government in its 
formation is a fac simile of the feodal system, for every 
church officer in every catholic country on the globe is sub- 
ject to the Roman pontiff, and removable at his nod. 

In the coronation of the pope, the cardinal deacon takes off 
the mitre of his holiness, and puts the triple crown on his 
head, saying " Receive this tiara, embellished with three 
crowns, and never forget when you have it on, that you are 
the father of princes and kings, the supreme judge of the 
universe, and on the earth vicar of Jesus Christ our Lord 
and Savior." He is denominated "Vicegerent of God, and 
regent of the universe," and claims a right to St. Peter's 
sword, and with it to give apostolical chastisement to those 
who despise or disregard his decisions, relative to the chris- 
tian faith ; and farther he declares that the princes of the 
church are superior to all temporal ones. What cannot such 
a government accomplish when the archbishops, bishops and 
priests, are all commissioned by, and subject to, and centred 
in, one man, invested with such a stretch of legislative, exe- 
cutive, and judicial poweiv 

But still to increase and concentrate this overwhelming 
strength, and to render it yet more vigorous, every prelate 
in the papal hierarchy must take the following oath, which 
pope Clement VIII framed for the purpose.- It is rendered 
from the latin as follows :. " I will.be faithful, and. obedient ta< 



48 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

our lord the pope, and to his successors. I will not disclose 
to any one the designs of the pope that may be made known 
to me. I will be a coadjutor to the pope of Rome, and to the 
government of holy Peter, to defend, and protect them from 
all men. I will make it my chief care to preserve, defend, 
increase, and extend the laws, worship, and authority of the 
holy church of our lord the pope, and his successors ; and 
whatever in relation to this subject I may discover, that may 
be done or procured to be done, I will make known as quickly 
as possible. I will persecute to the extent of my abilities, 
all heretics, schismatics, and rebels against our lord the 
pope." 

To still augment this power, every priest is required to 
swear to the bishop, and every private member must sub- 
scribe to the following confession of faith : "I acknowledge 
the holy Catholic and apostolic Roman church, the mother 
and mistress of ail churches, and I promise and swear true 
obedience ot the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter, 
prince of the apostles and vicar of Jesus Christ. I also pro- 
fess, and undoubtedly receive, all other things delivered, de- 
fined, and declared by the sacred canons, and general coun- 
cils, and particularly by the holy council of Trent ; and 
likewise I also condemn, reject and anathematize all things 
contrary thereto ; and all heresies whatsoever condemned and 
anathematized by the church. This true catholic faith out 
of which none can be saved, which I now freely profess, and 
truly hold, I * * promise, vow, and swear, most con- 
stantly, to hold, and profess the same, whole, and entire, with 
God's assistance, to the end of my life. Amen." 

And still to strengthen the hands of the papacy auricular 
confessions has been invented, to acquaint the priests with all 
secrets, in order to increase their power, and render them 
lordly tyrants, and the people trembling slaves. It also ena- 
bles them to get many legacies and bequests in their favor, 
at the expense of the indigence of wives and children, which 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OF ROiYIE. 49 

often renders the lawful heir a beggar, to enrich the Roman 
clergy, and fill the well stored coffers of the successor of the 
fisherman with worldly wealth : and, finally, worse than all 
it throws into the hands of Jesuits, the power of political in- 
trigue, with officers of state, and even kings and empe- 
rors. 

But to give to despotism its keenest edge, and to furbish 
its sharpest weapon the " holy inquisition" was devised by 
Dominic, under Innocent III, in the thirteenth century ; taking 
cognizance of actions, words, and thoughts ; and claiming 
power to kill the body, by condemning the heretic to the 
flames, and of destroying the soul by consigning it to ever- 
lasting burnings. Whoever falls under the suspicion of her- 
esy, says Mr. McGavin, is first alarmed by the coming of the 
black-cowled officers, to take him to the prison of the inquisi- 
tion ! no warrant is needful, but only the known garb, and 
the dreadful name of the inquisitors, whose hour of coming 
is usually in the still of night. Fathers, with trembling, sur- 
render their dearest connections ! " The holy inquisition 
demands," and every Catholic, under penalty of inquisitorial 
judgment, must obey, and must aid the midnight band, if 
need be, to force the unwilling to surrender. There is no 
appeal from this tribunal, no power to search its records, to 
re-examine its decisions, or so much as to ascertain the num* 
ber of its prisoners, or the precise nature of the crimes charg- 
ed against them. No civil authority has power to send a 
process into the walls of the inquisition. No ecclesiastical 
tribunal is above them save the pope, and to his ear the in- 
quisitors have a readier access than belongs to any ordinary 
man or potentate. Once seized, their victim has no escape, 
except by complete submission to the will of the inquisitors, 
whatever that may be ; and if it be that the victim shall never 
escape, the choice of confinement in a dungeon, or in vice, 
is all that is left. The refractory they starve and imprison, 
and torture with various ingenious machines for tormenting 



50 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

the flesh, and the incorrigible they condemn to the fires of 
the inquisition, called auto da fe. 

These are some of the appendages of popery, inseparable 
from a government of force. An administration in the hands 
of the people, where it should, be, may have the aggregate 
power of the nation to support it ; but every despotism in 
order to stand must have power to sustain itself by force. 
The Roman government isthe most despotic in chrisendom. 
All its sinews are spread over all the Catholic world, and 
united in the hands of the pope ; giving him power to direct 
all his energies to a single vulnerable point, and arming him 
with the most invincible strength, conjoined with the most ab- 
solute despotism. 



chapter vnr:. 

OF EPISCOPACY AS FOUND IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 
Its Dangerous Tendencies to the Liberties of the World. 

The great moral question of human government, which has 
so greatly agitated the- -world for seventy years, is still unset- 
tled. Men of every nation, kindred, and tongue, philanthro- 
pists of every caste, politicians of every party, and christians 
of every creed, are anxiously inquiring, whether legitimate, 
or liberal governments shall prevail. 

One thing we count certain ; that liberty or tyranny must 
finally triumph over the world. Ever since the barons of 
England obtained Magna Charta from king John, and very 
especially since the American revolution, legitimacy has been 
crippled, and the political elements set in motion, - The great 
prosperity of this republic without iron laws, and standing 
armies, and inquisitions, is the wonder of the world ; and is 
creating constant uneasiness, and working rebellion, revolu- 
tion and destruction to their thrones. This was keenly felt 
at the meeting of the German Confederacy in 1815 when 
Metternich said, to the assembled princes of Europe, " Let us 
set ourselves not onlyagainst the popular movements of the 
age, but let us restore the state of things in the Feudal ages." 
The influence * of' our free institutions has roused the " Holy 
Alliance" of all despotic Europe to action, for self-preservation. 
Nothing short of the total annihilation of American liberty 
will answer their purpose ; for, so long as the lucid rays of 
freedom are flashing into the dark dens of European servi- 
tude, there will be popular commotion, the spirit of revolution 



52 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

will be manifest, and the tax-burdened peasantry in chains 
look to America, and long to be free. To counteract the 
wide spreading influence of liberal governments, various ex- 
pedients have been tried already without success ; but as with 
the princes of Babylon they could find no fault with Daniel, 
''except concerning the law of his God ;" so despotism can 
find no ostensible defect in elective governments, but to de- 
stroy them it covers up its designs under the specious garb of 
religion. In the progress of the enterprise the celebrated 
Frederick Schlegel in 1323 delivered lectures in Vienna, 
Austria, on the " philosophy of history" and in shewing the 
mutual support which popery and monarchy derive from each 
other, he commends them in connection, as deserving univer- 
sal reception. With this he contrasts the system of protes- 
tantism, and represents it as the enemy of good government, 
as the ally of republicanism, as the parent of the distresses of 
Europe, as the cause of all the disorders with which legitimate 
governments are afflicted. At the close of lecture 17, vol. 2, 
jyp. 286, speaking of this country he says, " The true nursery 
of all these destructive principles, the revolutionary school 
for France, and the rest of Europe, has been Xorth America. 
Thence the evil has spread over many lands, either by natural 
contagion, or by arbitrary communication.'' 

Soon after this the " St. Leopold Foundation" was formed 
an account of which was published in various periodicals in 
the United States, together with the constitution of the society, 
and the popes letter of approbation, " Dated at Rome, at St. 
Peters, under the ring of the fisherman on the 30th day of 
January 1829, in the sixth year of our pontificate." 

From this we learn that the society is called the St. Leo- 
pold Foundation, that it was organized in Austria, that with 
the " Society for the propagation of the faith" in Italy, the 
" Penny Society in France," etc., it was designed to operate 
in the United States, that it meets and forms its secret plans in 
Vienna, and is under the watchful care of prince Metternich. 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OP ROME. 53 

Thus the" Holy Alliance" of despotic sovereigns of Europe, 
leaged together against the liberties of the world, superintend 
the papal operations in America. Their emissaries are now 
among us ; they are many of them Jesuits, and priests ; 
friends of despotism, enemies to civil and religious liberty. 
They are in vigorous action, employed and paid by foreign 
powers, who can and do concentrate their efforts to destroy 
our liberties, having recourse to the vast ocean of funds, and 
artifice, and intrigue, and intellect, and political experience 
of all papal Europe. Their ulterior design is to sweep all 
liberty from the face of the earth. They intend that kings, 
and emperors, and popes, and cardinals, and autocrats, and 
despots shall rule the whole world ; with laws, and triple 
crowns, and sceptres of iron. One emperor in the " Holy 
Alliance" says: "As long as I live I will oppose a will of 
iron to the progress of liberal opinions. The present genera-*- 
tion is lost, but we must labor with zeal and earnestness to 
improve the spirit of that to come. It may require a hundred 
years, I am not unreasonable, I give you a whole age, but 
you must work without relaxation." 

Having examined the strength, and designs of Romanism, 
we observe on the other hand that the government of the 
United States is the farthest remove from a military despo- 
tism, that none of its appendages are adapted to ecclesiastical 
force, or compulsion, or to withstand the encroachments of 
Jesuitical duplicity. The excellent constitution of our coun- 
try not only guarantees freedom of speeeh, and freedom of 
the press, but also gives ample toleration to religious opinion ; 
and this clause in the palladium of our liberties has been can- 
vassed not only in Rome and Vienna, but in every other des- 
potic cabinet in Europe.- They see and know our inefficiency 
at that point, and boast that the different Protestant sects bal- 
ance each other, while they, moving together, throw the whole 
weight of their influence to the focus where we are most vul- 
nerable. They boast that our laws encourage emigration, and 



'54 ECCLESIASTICAL -POLITY. 

afford great facilities for naturalization. In the "Catholic 
Laity's Directory" for 1845, pp.. 111, they speak of a portion 
of the western states, and say, "the entire section of this coun- 
try is filling' up fast with Irish Catholics." They are aware 
of the recklessness of many politicians, and of the bitterness 
of party spirit, while they are opposed to every political 
faction in the country. They have the same aversion to re- 
publicanism now, that they had in the days of Paul V, who 
excommunicated the learned and eloquent Fra Paulo, for vin- 
dicating the Venetian republic, and caused him to be assassi- 
nated, and when being stabbed by the hired assassin, in Rome, 
in the act of celebrating mass, he exclaimed, " I recognize 
the Roman dagger." They are aware that the bitterness of 
contending parties gives foreign conspirators an entire advan- 
tage over us ; with a press greatly wanting in independence, 
and with demagogues who will have office, cost what it may. 
They flatter the populace, fawn round the influential, and fall 
in with any well disciplined host, if they can hope for success, 
and go on with the current at the paril of the country, and all 
its liberties. 

Though foreign conspirators act in secret, yet they have 
frequently hinted at the subversion of our government. One 
says, "We must make haste, the moments are precious. If 
the protestant sects are beforehand with us it will be difficult 
to destroy their influence." Lord Bishop Flaget, of Bards- 
town Kentucky, more than ten years since, in writing abroad, 
mentioning the barrier in the way of the conversion of the 
Indians, by the Catholics, says : " It is their continual traffick 
among the whites which cannot be hindered as long as the 
republican government shall continue.'''' 

Here then is a regular party, a professedly religious body, 
ready to throw the whole weight of its influence where the 
pope, and the consistory of cardinals, in secret conclave, shall 
dictate. Orders are delivered to their obedient officers, and 
distributed through their well disciplined xanks, to favor the 



EPISCOPACY IN TEE CHURCH OF ROME. 5*5 

political designs of tyrants. Popery here from first to last is 
under the supreme control of a foreign despotic sovereign, 
and it is leagued against the liberties of the world. The wily 
maneuverings of despotism have commenced, the results of 
the Leopold Foundation movements are already before us, 
and we now proceed to examine them. 

After calling us "unhappy heathen and obstinate heretics," 
they have divided the United States into dioceses, the map of 
which is now before me ; and they have not left an inch of 
territory for protestants, and why should they when they 
claim by divine right, the whole country ? 

Their professedly missionary efforts clearly evince a deter- 
mination to subjugate the government. Ever since their 
society has been in operation they have been extorting large 
sums of money, either by fraud or by force, from the suffer- 
ing poor in Europe, and sending here in increasing annual 
supplies ; and from a reliable source we learn that they had 
expended upon us more than seventy four thousand dollars 
in 1832 ; and by the Catholic Diary for 1845, pp. 186 we 
find that the " Association for the propagation of the faith," 
in the single year 1843, distributed one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars for missions in. .the United States. 

As this foreign conspiracy has now been in action some 
fifteen years, let us observe its progress. The late Dr. Eng- 
land in 1838, computed the nurnber of catholics in the United 
States at one million, two hundred thousand. Bishop Rosati 
of St. Louis, in an article published in the " Annaie di Scienze 
Religiose" at Rome in 1842, states, that the number of catho- 
lics in this country, according to the opinion of well informed 
persons, is not less than a million and a half. 

They claim not only all the United States proper, but also 
Texas, and Oregon. Speaking of several large establish- 
ments on the Columbia river they say : " The number of con- 
verts is from two to three thousand;" and also state that: 
" In compliance with the request of the fifth provincial coun- 



56 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

cil of Baltimore, the holy see has erected Oregon territory 
into an Apostolic Vicariate, and has appointed the Right 
Reverend F. N. Blanchette to the government of the mission. 
The names of the other " clergymen of the society of Jesus" 
engaged there, twelve in number, are mentioned ; and by 
" Fathers of the society of Jesus" we understand, in plain 
English parlance, Jesuit priests. In a late number of the 
"Catholic Cabinet" we learn that of seven hundred and nine- 
ty one priests in the United States, one hundred and three^ 
are Jesuits. 

The rapid progress of popery for the past ten years,, from 
1835 to 1845, is alarming. The account is taken from the 
Catholic Diary, for 1845, pp. 185.. Then there were thirteen 
dioceses, and now there are twenty one, besides the Apostolic 
Vicariate in Oregon.. Then there were fourteen bishops, and 
now twenty six ; and then there were two hundred and sev- 
enty two churches, but now six hundred seventy five. Thus 
their churches have much more than doubled, which is more 
than can be said of any Protestant church in the world during 
the same period. They are rapidly going up still, in every di- 
rection, not built of "huge wood" as they term it, but of more' 
expensive and permanent materials, and they are of great di- 
mensions. I observe' one, one hundred and sixty feet by 
eighty, another, one hundred sixty two by eighty eight, an- 
other, one hundred twelve £eet by sixty, with a steeple one 
hundred, and. twenty five feet high, and so of the rest ; and. 
they seem to go by some secret spring as by magic. 

But what renders the dark system still more dangerous is 
the astounding fact that much of the money sent from Europe 
is vested in real property by the bishops, together with the 
contributions of the people here, so that the bishops exercise 
the right of ownership over all the church property in their 
several dioceses ; and these same bishops are appointed by the . 
pope, bound by oath to implicit obedience to him, and remov- 
able at his pleasure.. Thus this. immense world of increasing. 






EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 57 

wealth is all daily concentrating in the hands of the pontiff, 
to break forth like ./Etna in due time, with tremendous force, 
against our civil institutions, to overturn our liberties, and bury 
them in the dust. 

It is ascertained that the extent of landed property belonging 
to the Roman church in the Mississippi valley is enormous,, 
that the priests are extensively opulent, that with their nume- 
rous sources of wealth, without the expense of families, they 
purchase new lands ; and it is thought that if they continue on, 
in the same ratio, two thirds of the western* country will be in 
their posession. The annual income from the numerous es- 
tablishments in the Kentucky diocese is supposed to be no less 
than three hundred thousand dollars- 
Look again at their efforts to monopolize the literature of 
the country. It has always been the policy of Romanists to 
educate the youth, to shape their minds in the mould of bigo- 
try, and despotism ; and to this end they have already estab- 
lished fifteen colleges among us, twenty two ecclesiastical 
seminaries, sixty three female academies, and other literary 
institutions in great numbers. 

Why this sudden rush of Jesuits, and priests, and nuns, to 
educate our children, w T hen they are so much better provided 
for than in any catholic country in the world 1 Here educa- 
tion is within the reach of all, and the mass receive it : there 
they do not educate the mass, and do not wish to. Education - 
in popish countries, in colleges, and seminaries, is under very 
severe restrictions, and those same restrictions obtain here, 
in some measure, in the United States. The books must be 
examined, and none admitted but such as Jesuits or priests 
shall approve. They said in the Catholic Diary, about twelve 
years since ; " we seriously advise catholic parents to be 
very cautious in the choice of school; books for their children.. 
There is more danger to be apprehended in this quarter, than 
could be conceived. Parents we are aware, have not always- 
time or patience to examine these matters, but if they trust 



58 'TECCLESrASTICAL POLITY. 

implicitly to 'us,' we shall by God's help do it for them." The 
same requisitions are made now in 1846 in many if not all 
the popish colleges and seminaries in the United States. 

In Mount St. Mary's college, Maryland, they say : "no 
books are allowed to circulate among the students which have 
not received the president's approbation." In Georgetown 
college District of Columbia, the rule is : " All books of 
whatever kind must however be submitted to the supervision 
of the prefect of schools, without whose permission none will 
be allowed circulation in the college." In St. John's college 
Rose Hill, Westchester County New York, they say : "No 
books will be allowed circulation among the students which 
have not been previously submitted to the supervision, and 
received the approval, of either the president of the college, 
or of the prefect of studies." We can easily infer how they 
would exercise their power in this supervision, by keeping 
out all general history, because it would reveal the corrup- 
tions of popery, by prohibiting the Bible, because it would 
shew its falsity, and by interdicting general information, and 
the improvements of the age, because it would enlighten them, 
and make them independent thinkers : and then substituting 
their barbarous latin, and popish legends, to fit the students 
to become the dupes of foreign conspiritors and the willing 
serfs of the Roman pontiff. 

They not only guard, with vigilance, their books of study, 
but also watch *tll their deportment. In " St. Mary's college 
of the lake" at Chicago Illinois, the rule for students is, that 
"during their walks and recreations, as well as in the hours of 
study, they will be under the vigilant care of a prefect ;" and 
in St. Joseph's college B ardsto wn, Ky., rule tenth says, " the 
students will not in future be premitted to visit the town except 
in company with an officer or professor ;" and to prohibit all 
epistolaiy correspondence with protestants, rule sixth declares, 
that "all letters written or received by the students are sub- 
ject to the inspection of the president, except letters from 



I 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 59 

parents, or guardians." Thus sail students in popish institu- 
tions must be enslaved right in this land of liberty, just as they 
are in their own land of papal despotism. 

But there is one item in our institutions which has greatly 
disappointed the sanguine expectations of the Romanists, viz: 
our ■public school system. When the conspiracy was formed 
in Europe to destroy our liberties, they supposed they could 
monopolize the instruction of the youth, as they do there ; but 
our liberal system of education to which they feel such aver- 
sion was greatly in their way. They supposed that by the 
help of their funds from Europe they could give instruction 
so cheap as to underbid us, and get it into their own hands-; 
but they cannot compete with the free school system, and 
then these schools disseminate general education, broad cast, 
to the wide spread mass ; a circumstance very detrimental, 
if not fatal to Popery. What then is to be done 1 It would 
be very unpopular, in view of its success, to oppose the pub- 
lic school system openly ; hence, they all at once became 
very religious, and found that their sectarian exclusiveness 
was such that they could. not conscientiously patronize schools 
where the Bible was admitted. Then up comes 'Bishop 
Hughes, and his coadjutors, and loudly demand thirty thousand 
dollars annually, of the New York City school fund, the 
chief of which had accrued on the property of Protestants, .to 
be paid to the Roman Catholic priests, to proselyte our chil- 
dren, and destroy our liberties. If they could filch this an- 
nual amount from the Protestants in New York, they would 
claim it as their right elsewhere, and this would give success 
to their enterprise at once. They wish to tax all the Protes- 
tants in the United States to sustain , Popery J yes, Popery, 
that would not permit a Protestant in the .world to live, and 
enjoy freedom, if it could help it. But if this claim had been 
allowed, all other denominations might justly make the same 
demand, and the school money would be scattered, and 
delivered over ito sectarian purposes, and thus be diverted 



60 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

from the laudable objects for which it was intended. But the 
cry of persecution was long and loud. The Catholics were 
dreadfully persecuted, because the Protestants would not yield 
up their rights, liberties, money and all, and succumb, and 
help fix the magazine to blow them to atoms. 

To further promote our literature they have a long list of 
" standard Catholic books" containing if I count correctly, 
three hundred and fifty six distinct works, some of several 
volumes each, one hundred and twenty four of which are 
English, one hundred fifty nine Spanish, and seventy three 
French, and besides this they have a " Youths Library," con- 
taining "moral tales" for juveniles, catalogues of which are 
now before me. 

Their "Catholic Periodicals" mostly under the direc- 
tion of the bishops of the dioceses where they are published, 
are the following: Weekly,. "The United States Catholic 
Miscellany" Charleston,. S. C. " The Catholic Telegraph," 
Cincinnati. " Catholic Herald," Philadelphia. " Catholic 
Advocate," Bardstown, Kentucky. " Der Warheits Freud," 
German, Cincinnati. " The New York Freemans Journal 
and Catholic Register," New York. Le Propagateur Cath- 
olique," French, New Orleans. " The TruthsTeller," New 
York. "The Boston Pilot." The Boston Reporter and 
Catholic Diary," and the " Catholic Sentinel," New Orleans. 
Monthlies : " The United States Catholic Magazine and 
Monthly Review," Baltimore, with the approbation of the 
Most Reverend Archbishop of Baltimore, and the Right Rev- 
erend the Bishops of the United States. "The Catholic Ex- 
positor and Literary Magazine," New York. " The Catholic 
Cabinet," St. Louis, Mo. and " Catholic Tracts," Baltimore. 
They have one Quarterly ; " Brownsons Quarterly Review," 
Boston, and two Annuals published in Baltimore. 

One would suppose by this array of literary effort that they 
are the friends, and guardians of science, and of the liberty 
of the press, but to shew the reverse we will quote the words 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 61 

'Of Gregory XVI the late pontiff: i; Hithertends that worst and 
never sufficiently to be execrated, and detested liberty of the 
press, for the diffusion of all manner of writings, which some 
so louflly contend for, and so actively promote." Thus they 
are opposed to general education ; if not where is the exam- 
ple of it in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria or Ireland 1 

These conspirators endeavor to conceal their ulterior de- 
signs under the specious garb of science and religion ; but 
the truth will frequently leak out, as it did with the ministers 
of church affairs in the Chamber of Deputies, who said of the 
Leopold Foundation that " independent of its purely spiritual 
designs, it is of great political interest." While the bishop 
of Cincinnati was eulogizing our public school system, in this 
country, he wrote to the propaganda in Rome the most sor- 
rowful accounts of its destructive tendencies ; which letters 
were incautiously published, not supposing that they would 
over reach America ; but the canvas was spread, on came 
the letters, and found the crafty prelate still extoling the sys- 
tem. 

Stratagem and management are everywhere visible. The 
supple consciences of the conspirators are restrained by no 
religious or moral scruples. They interfere largely in every 
election. They have an army of adherents, organized, and 
disciplined ; subject to their will, and ready at their call, 
At an election in Michigan Bishop Richard, a Jesuit, was 
frequently elected to Congress where the majority on the dis- 
trict were Catholics ; and the late Bishop England of Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, of whom the writer of this has some 
personal knowledge, is reported to have boasted of the number 
of votes he could command at an election. - 

By acting in concert, and holding the balance of power, in 
the midst of sharply contested elections, and then throwing 
themselves into the market, to go for the highest bidder, they 
are enabled to make the most imperious demands of the win- 
ning party. When did they put in their unwarrantable claim 



62 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

for the thirty thousand dollars of New York City school 
money, but just before the great presidential election of 1840, 
the issue of which was doubtful, giving a powerful incentive 
to allow any claim however unjust % 

But supposing they obtain those political advantages, will 
they live on equal terms of reciprocity with Protestants, and 
permit them to enjoy liberty of conscience ? Let history 
answer this question.. Let their creed respond which forbids 
them to suffer a "heretic to live." They are unchangeably 
intolerant. Their resort has always been to the sword, the 
dungeon, the torture, the inquisition,- and the burning pile. 
Some authors declare that fifty millions, and others that nearly 
seventy millions have gone to the grave through papal perse- 
cution. Mr. Rogers, in his work on anti-popery says, that 
" the soil of the greater part of Europe has been drenched by 
the blood of martyrs ; blood splilled by the papal monster, 
really to attain his own infernal ends, though professedly (a 
profession implying the hypocrisy of devils,!) to uphold the 
religion of the God of love." pp. 67. It is a plain matter 
of history that as late as the bloody reign of Mary, there 
were burnt alive one-.- archbishop, four bishops, twenty one di- 
vines, eight gentlemen, one hundred and eighty four artifi- 
cers, and one hundred husbandmen, servants, and laborers ; 
twenty six wives, twenty widows, nine girls, two boys, and 
two infants. Popery is the same .now that it was in the Irish 
massacre, or St. Bartholomew's butchery ; and in view of all 
its sanguinary efforts for fifteen Jhundred years past, can we 
now suppose that it -has no designs against our republican 
government ? We- should not wonder that the farseeing 
patriot, and friend of liberty, Gen. La Fayette, after taking 
an active part in revolutions, in two hemispheres, and know- 
ing well the power and management of the Romish hierarchy,, 
declared that " if ever the liberties of this country are de- 
stroyed, it will be by Popery-" But it has been said that the 
Methodist Episcopal. Church . in. the. United, States numbers. 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OP ROME. 63 

more than a million, and that they with other churches, can 
counteract the papal influence; but what are they among 
two hundred millions of trained soldiers, bound together by 
fear, by love, by their consciences, and more than all, by their 
oaths, till they move like one. 

When we contemplate the. strength of its government, its 
military form, its natural power of self - defense, self preser- 
vation, and aggression ; and perceive its wealth, its subtilty, 
its potency, its acumen in political tactics*- its fixed and set- 
tled determination, driven on /by necessity, to overthrow lib- 
erty, and bind the world in chains, and manacles; with the 
Leopold Foundation formed,- and adapted to the work of de- 
struction, and then look at our vulnerable situation, divided as 
we are into contending factions, and tending to anarchy, 
shall we not be alarmed % See its sly efforts to monopolize 
our literature, managed by wily Jesuits, . who have been no- 
torious for their duplicity for ages; behold the rapid emigra- 
tion, from all Catholic Europe, to fill our poor houses and 
penitentiaries, to be supported by us till they can accomplish 
our ruin ; see their concentrated power, and management at 
our elections, so that they are- now measurably under the con- 
trol of Metternich, the most despotic prince of Europe, and 
shall we still assert that all is well % The very foundations of 
the world are giving way to Popery. England and Wales, 
those bulwarks for ages, against the papacy are rapidly going 
back. From 1835, to 1845, they have increased from four 
Roman catholic bishops to eight, from six Romish colleges 
to twelve, from no monasteries at all to three, and from 
eighteen convents to thirty two. . The blackness of darkness 
gathers, and still blackens round the whole scene. . Like an 
overrunning flood, it carries all before it, and threatens to 
bury all evangelical churches in rubbish, and ruins. The 
pope of Rome has circumnavigated the globe, and calls the 
world his own. . He achieves his conquests by stratagem, and \ 
by the. sword*. With. .one. hand he.is subduing^the.. defences 



64 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

less island of Tahiti, and converting its Protestant inhabitants 
by the bayonet, till the cries of the women and children fill 
the mountains ; and with the other he is taking a kind of 
wholesale possession of China : and while he creates civil 
war in Switzerland, and drenches it in blood to sustain a 
Jesuit college, he is agitating all England and Ireland with 
the Maynooth question, till he finally breaks over all the bar- 
riers of the constitution, parliament, oaths of allegiance, crown 
and every thing, and seizes upon the annuity, and at the same 
time he is laying his hand upon Texas and Oregon, deciding 
the destinies of an American election, and forging chains for 
all the world. Shall we see all these wily maneuverings, and 
sudden changes, and silent revolutions, now passing in open 
clay, before our eyes, and be still, and say there is no danger? 
But where is that great invisible engine that controls even 
the ballot box ? TThere is that unseen giant hand which is 
ruling the nations, governing our elections, and revolution- 
izing the world 1 "Where ? Look on the banks of the Tiber. 



CHAPTER IX. 

OP EPISCOPACY AS FOUND IN THE CHURCH OP ROME. 

The Antidote to its Dangerous Tendencies. 

It is the great desideratum of the age to find the antidote for 
the intrigues of Jesuits. This order was . reinstated immedi- 
ately after the restoration of the Bourbons ; and the rapid ad- 
vances of Popery have subsequently demonstrated the wisdom 
of the policy. The late pope Gregory XVI, was the devoted 
friend of the order ; he has committed quite a number of im- 
portant colleges into their hands, and their success has been 
such, both in Europe and America, as to threaten all the 
Protestant world with final overthrow. Here the strength of 
our liberal government is about to be tested. Republicanism 
asserts that moral means with mild and wholesome laws, made 
by the representatives of the people themselves, can success- 
fully govern an enlightened nation, whilst legitimacy declares 
that no government can be permanent without chains, and 
dungeons, and bolts, and bayonets, and soldiers. Here des- 
potism and liberty join issue. " Defend yourselves," cries 
the Austrian Papist. " You cannot defend yourselves ; your 
government in its very nature is not strong enough to protect 
you against foreign or domestic conspiracy. You must here 
take a lesson from legitimate governments. We alone can 
teach the effectual method of suppressing conspiracies. You 
say you have a body of conspirators against your liberties, a 
body of foreigners who are spreading their pernicious here- 
sies through your land and endangering the state. The weak- 
ness of republicanism is now manifest. What constitutional or 

5 



66 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

legal provision meets the difficulty ? Where are your laws 
prohibiting Catholics from preaching or teaching their doc- 
trines, and erecting their chapels, churches, and schools ? 
Where is your passport system, to enable you to know the 
movements of every man. of them in the land ? Where is 
your gens d'armerie, your armed police, those useful agents 
whose domiciliary visits could ferret out every Catholic, seize 
and examine his papers, and keep him' from farther mischief 
in the dungeons of the state 1 Where are your laws that can 
terrify, by the penalty of imprisonment, any man that dares 
to utter an opinion against the government % Where is your 
judicious censorship of the press, to silence the Catholic jour- 
nals, and stifle any Catholic sentiments in other journals ? 
Where is your index expurgatorius, to denounce all unsafe 
books that no Catholic book may be printed or admitted into 
the country % Where is your system of espionage, that no 
Protestant may read a Catholic publication or express in con- 
versation a single sentiment unfavorable to Protestantism, with- 
out being : overlooked and overheard. by some faithful spy and 
reported to the government % Where are the officers in your 
post office department, for the secret examination of letters, 
so that even the most confidential correspondence may be 
purified from dangerous heresy ? Where is your secret in- 
quisitorial court, for the trial. and condemnation of apostate 
Protestants ?. Without these changes in the constitution and 
laws of your government, you can oppose no efficient obstacle 
to the success of this conspiracy. 5 ' 

And what shall we answer when the experience of almost 
all ages and nations are in his favor, when monarchies have 
been almost universal, and republics few, and of short dura- 
tion % Our reply is .that times have changed, that printing,. 
the magnetic needle, steam navigation, and the arts- and scien- 
ces, with general literature, have so changed the aspect of all 
governments that permanency may be secured in this age of 
light by the. exercise of. moral power., conjoined with. the. po=- 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH' OF ROME. 67 

tency of mild laws, made by the people. In this war of prin- 
ciples, in the open field of free discussion, religious, moral 
and political light must become general, it must be poured in 
floods upon every intellect, it must be disseminated in such 
copious profusion that its lucid' beams shall enlighten every 
nation, and irradiate the world. ' 

But what shall we do now, while we see England with one 
of the strongest of governments in a political sense, rapidly 
tending to Popery ?■ The question recurs, what shall we do ? 
And when we behold our own religious and political institu- 
tions, on being assailed by tyrants, tending to division, seces- 
sion, faction, and anarchy ; the question returns again with 
redoubled force, what shall we do? We propose to answer. 

1. We should not persecute the Catholics. This would 
only confirm them in their error, and it should be remembered 
that the private members of the Roman Church are ignorant 
of the foreign conspiracy ; they honestly consider their hie- 
rarchy a religious, and not a political system ; they are fre- 
quently the friends of liberty, and in this respect personally 
blameless. But they are the ignorant dupes and slaves of their 
priesthood,, ready to act in concert at their bidding, and just 
fitted to be the instruments of our destruction. Like the sword 
in the scabbard they are harmless, but wait the opportunity. 

2. We should not violate their equal religious privileges. 
Unfettered toleration should be our glory. Our great charter 
of liberty which says, " Congress shall make no law respecting 
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
thereof" is as it should be ; and this point must be well. guarded, 
for if we are driven from our moorings here, we know not 
where the winds and waves may carry us, It is true they 
would not tolerate us in Spain, Portugal or Austria, yet that 
is wrong, and we should not retaliate ; and if we should, it 
would only create sympathy in their favor, and form capital 
on which they could act with still greater effect. 

3. We should not prohibit their right of suffrage as a de- 



68 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

nomination ; but congress should require a much longer time, 
and better assurances of fidelity to our constitution, and laws, 
for the naturalization of all foreigners, than it now does. 

4. We should not require of them specially an oath of al- 
legiance ; first, because they profess that no heretic can ad- 
minister an oath that should bind their consciences ; and sec- 
ondly, because the priests can so easily be induced to pardon 
the crime of perjury. The pope can as easily absolve the 
officers and subjects of state from their oaths, and annul our 
acts of government as he did those of queen Elizabeth and 
Don Pedro. A Protestant editor who was once a Popish 
priest, sa3 r s : " What safety can there be in the testimony of 
the subjects of a church which teaches that it is lawful to kill 
a false accuser, false witness, and even the judge from whom 
a sentence is feared which will endanger life, honor, or even 
property, if otherwise there is no other way left for the inno- 
cent to escape ? This is the express doctrine taught by the 
Romish church, and if called upon, I am ready to prove it be- 
fore the world." He then quotes his evidence among their 
own authors. 

The vast numbers of illegal catholic votes sworn into the 
ballot box at our elections, and the ineffectual prosecutions for 
perjury where they swear for each other, clearly shew that 
the public safety cannot be established on their oaths. 

Having spoken of what we should not do we come secondly 
to shew what we should do : and first of our duty in legislation. 

1. We should restrict the migration of foreigners to this 
country. 

Because foreign paupers are such an immense tax upon us. 
From statistics before us we learn that nine tenths of the inmates 
of some of the alms houses are members of the Romish church 
and in one instance in the ratio of twenty seven to one. An 
editor long and intimately acquainted with Popery inquires : 
" Will you gratuitously appropriate the public funds to for- 
eign subjects, who, feeding on your bounty thirst for your 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 69 

blood 1 Will you encourage their asylums for the prostitu- 
tion of our people to a foreign potentate, who, when his power 
and influence increase, will rush upon you like a savage mon- 
ster, and by his spiritual authority teach you that heretics are 
not to live." It is well known that we are becoming the re- 
ceptacle for the vagrants and vagabonds of all Europe. Crim- 
inals by hundreds are banished to this country, and we have 
them lighting the incendiaries torch, and acting in favor of 
Popery and against democracy. This whole migration ought 
to be suppressed. 

Because this immense tide of emigration is unsafe to our 
national freedom. Every minor consideration should be yield- 
ed up, when the liberties of the nation and of the world are 
in danger. But it is objected that Popish funds and influence 
are so prevalent in Washington that patriotism withers before 
it, and that Congress will never enact such a prohibitory 
law. 

2. Should this be the case, a suitable tariff should be laid on 
all foreign emigrants who come to settle with us. Its avails 
could be expended in schools, in moral culture, in spreading 
democratic principles, and in counteracting the corrupting 
influence of foreign conspirators. 

3. An act should be passed requiring a residence of twenty 
one years before they shall be entitled to the privileges ofthe 
elective franchise. We all know well enough that those for- 
eigners who owe allegiance to the pope of Rome, and whose 
prejudices and political education are all fixed in favor of 
monarchy, are no better prepared to exercise the right of suf- 
frage intelligently, after a residence among us of twenty one 
years, than the native born citizens who have come up among 
us, and arrived at that age. A free people can never safely 
entrust their law making with those who can be used as the 
instruments of despotism. 

But if all these legislative projects fail, in consequence of 
Popish influence already accrued in our national councils, we 



70 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY- 

still have one alternative left, which is that of the moral and 
benevolent kind. Though more remote in its effects, it should 
be faithfully tried, and none can reasonably object to it as it 
is wholly philanthropic. 

1. Our public school system should become general. This 
the papists dread ; first, on account of its cheapness, which 
renders their schools taught be Jesuits and sisters of charity 
unavailing. They dread it secondly, on account of its uni- 
versality, which threatens to disseminate knowledge broad- 
cast over the land, a circumstance fatal to those who esteem 
ignorance the mother of devotion, and they dread it, thirdly, on 
account of the patriotic feelings which sustain the system, and 
threaten to keep alive, the spirit of liberty and the love of lib- 
eral institutions, so as to render it difficult to bring the people 
under the dominion of tyrants. 

Protestants should not patronize Catholic schools. The ele- 
ments of monarchy are taught in them, and they produce 
darkness, and not light. Their doctrine is, that " They who 
send their children to schools where the scriptures are read, 
give their children bound in chains to the devil." Parents 
should train their children in early life to stand aloof from 
bigotry on one side, and licentiousness on the other ; to re- 
spect good order without compulsion, and to be willingly re- 
strained by wholesome rules ; then they will be prepared to 
sustain good government, and will never become bigots nor 
uneasy disorganizes of church and state. 

2. Those societies which are organized to operate directly 
against popery should be sustained. Among the first of these 
is the "Christian Alliance" formed to unite all Protestant 
churches to disseminate religious light and liberty in Italy and 
other parts of Catholic Europe. Although this society is in 
its infancy, yet it has so alarmed the pope that in his encycli- 
cal letter of May 8th, 1844, he warned "all primates, patri- 
archs, bishops and archbishops, against its proceedings." The 
"American Protestant Society" and all others designed to op- 



EPISCOPACY EST THE CHURCH OP ROME. Tl 

erate against Popery should receive the approbation and sup- 
port of the public 

Again, the heaven born principles of the Evangelical Alli- 
ance as developed at the worlds convention should be sustain- 
ed. The great truth that " every believer in the Lord Jesus 
Christ is spiritually one with every other believer" should 
prevail. 

3. Every freeman who loves his country and fears his God, 
should beware of giving his suffrages for Catholic rulers. 
They are enemies to our constitution, and friends of despo- 
tism : and should never be entrusted with power to rule over 
us. Every political faction which Would deliver over the 
country to papal rulers for the sake of party ought to be de- 
feated. 

4. The periodicals of the country of all parties and creeds, 
should throw their beams of light upon papal darkness. This 
important editorial trust should be discharged with fidelity. 

5 All Protestants in their daily intercourse 'with Catholics 
should teach them the nature of self-government, and of true 
liberty without licentiousness on the one side, or bigotry on 
the other. There is great danger that our free institutions 
will degenerate by degrees into licentiousness. There must 
be civil order, and we should all sustain it by dint of patriot- 
ism and love of country, and not because we are compelled to 
*it by force of law. 

6. The Holy Scriptures should be circulated among them 
in their own languages, and the efforts of Bible societies 
should be efficiently directed to them. Against the omnipo- 
tence of the Bible the whole power of popes, cardinals, bish- 
ops and priests have been directed for ages, and bulls, and an- 
athemas, and gibbets, and fires have come to their aid. The 
Bible is the antipodes of Popery and despotism ; give it to 
the people and they are free. Of this, the priesthood are all 
aware, and hence their opposition. A Romish priest in the 
presence and with the approbation of his archbishop recently 



72 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

preached that " The worst of all pestilences, the infectious 
pestilence of the Bible will entail on yourselves, and children 
the everlasting ruin of your souls." " Any persons who prac- 
tice the reading of the Bible will inevitably fall into everlas- 
ting destruction." 

7. Missionaries should also be sent among them to expound 
the word of life, wherever they can have access ; and where 
they cannot, laymen should go, and teach their schools, form 
sabbath schools, read to them the Scriptures, and exhort them 
to practical piety. God forbid that we should sin against him 
by neglecting to send the good Samaritan to this our wounded 
brother. 

8. There should be spirituality in the religion which we 
propose to them in exchange fbr Popery. If we only have 
the form they can put form against form, and one empty form 
is about as good as another. Let us carry them what will fill 
the whole soul, renew the whole man, and fit him for heaven. 
Light convinces the understanding, but love only can con- 
quer the heart. To this great change accomplished by the 
Holy Ghost in regeneration, and followed by the love of God 
filling the whole soul, and making men new creatures, the 
Jesuits are strangers. They detest and dread it, above every 
thing else ; it utterly unmans them. A Catholic missionary 
thus writes, " Zeal for error is always hot, particularly among 
the Methodists, whom nothing can turn from their track, and 
who heap absurdity upon absurdity. I should despair if I 
should see this sect building a church in my neighborhood." 

9. Protestants must learn a lesson from their adversaries 
and be united. When the Allies entered the plains of Water- 
loo, each had its own national costume, language and pree- 
lection, and fought under its own banners, but acted in concert, 
and they prevailed : but had their horse gone against their 
foot, and the foot against the horse, and both against the artil- 
lery, or had the Russians gone against the English, or the 
Austrians against the Prussians, they would have become an 




EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 73 

easy prey to Napoleon. We must act in concert, in favor 
of evangelical religion, not only in form but in power. We 
must discountenance disorganizers in church and statfe, with 
divisionists, secessionists and schismatics of every kind ; and 
each in our place act together, against the great common en- 
emy of God and man. Let us take up our moral and spirit- 
ual weapons, let us scatter light, religious and political light 
over all Chrisendom, yea over all the earth. " The field is 
the world." Arouse my countrymen from the verge of gen- 
eral ruin ! Arouse from the long deathlike slumbers which 
surround you ; buckle on the spiritual armor, rally around 
the standard of your country's sacred rights ; swell the loud 
clarion of alarm, and haste to the conflict. The anx- 
ious world beholds the mortal contest. Its destinies are 
soon decided. Darkness and despotism with their burnished, 
steels and bloody appendages are in arms, lead on by tyrants. 
See the foe in the field, brandishing his sabre ! Haste ye 
sons of freedom, to your arms, to your spiritual arms ye men 
of God ! Hold high your light. Scatter it wide, till every 
den of darkness shall be illumed, and a suffering church and 
an enslaved world shall hail with sacred delight their own 
emancipation. 

We hope to live to see religion exalted clear above the shuf- 
flings of political demagogues, and shining like the sun in hea- 
ven. We hope to see it disenthraled from the furious spirit of 
bigotry, and breathing the pure air of our happy institutions ; 
and looking back and rejoicing to see its broken chains and 
parted manacles rusting among the ruins of papal thrones and 
fallen mitres. Then shall a rejoicing world arise and sing : 

" Babylon is fallen, is fallen, is fallen ; 
Babylon is fallen to rise no more." 



CHAPTER X. 



OF EPISCOPACY AS FOUND IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

Church and state are connected tin England and Ireland, 
and being established by lawythe hierarchy forms a part of the 
common law or constitution of the country. The queen is 
the head of the church. Its government is Episcopal ; and 
episcopacy was established at an early date and for several 
centuries withstood the influence of Popery till the time of 
Austin the monk, in 597, when the papal hierarchy prevailed 
.everywhere. When Luther rose up against Popery, Henry 
VIII wrote a treatise against him, and received from the pon- 
tiff the title of "Defender of the faith" and though he after- 
ward shook off the popish authority, this title with that of 
" supreme head of the church" was transmitted with his crown, 
and still belongs to his successors. 

The churches of England and Ireland have been united 
since the year 1800. The episcopacy of the chui-ch of Eng- 
land consists of two archbishops and twenty four bishops, 
beside the bishop of Sodor and Man. All of them except the 
bishop of Man are barons or lords of parliament and are called 
lords spiritual as distinguished from lords temporal. The 
church of Ireland is governed by four archbishops and eigh- 
teen bishops and since the union of Britain and Ireland one 
archbishop and three bishops sit alternately in the house of 
lords by rotation of sessions. As the ecclesiastical state of 
England and Wales is divided intotwo archbishoprics, to wit : 
Canterbury and York ; each archbishop has within his pro- 
vince bishops of several dioceses. The archbishop of Canter- 
bury has twenty one, viz: Rochester, London, Winchester, 
Norwich, Lincoln, Ely, Chichester, Salisbury, Exter, Bath 



EPISCOPAdY iIN THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. 75 

and Wells, Worcester, Coventry and Lichfield, Hereford, 
Llandaff, St. Davids, Bangor, St. Asaph, Gloucester, Bris- 
tol, Peterborough and Oxford. The archbishop of York has 
four, namely, Chester, Durham, Carlisle, and the Isle of Man. 
They are called archbishops in respect to the bishops under 
them, and metropolitans because they were consecrated at first 
in the metropolis of the province. 

An archbishop is the chief of the clergy in a whole prov- 
ince, and has the inspection of the bishops of that province as 
well as of the inferior clergy ; he also has his own diocese 
wherein he exercises Episcopal jurisdiction, as in his province 
he exercises archiepiscopal. 

The archbishop of Canterbury has the precedency of all 
the clergy, next to him the bishop of York, next the bishop of 
London, next the bishop of Durham, next the bishop of Win- 
chester and then all the other bishops of both provinces after 
the seniority of their consecration, but if any of them be a 
privy counsellor he takes the place after the bishop of Dur- 
ham. The archbishop of Canterbury is the first peer of the 
realm, and has precedence not only before all the other clergy 
but also (next immediately after the blood royal) before ail 
the nobility of the realm, and as he has the precedence of all 
the nobility, so also of all the great officers of state except the 
lord chancellor. 

The archbishops have the titles and style of " grace and 
most reverend father in God, by divine providence :" the 
bishops " lord and most reverend father by divine permission." 
The former are inthroned, the latter installed. It is the duty 
of the archbishop of Canterbury to crown the kings and queens 
of the kingdom. 

An archbishop or bishop is nominally elected by the chap- 
ter of his cathedral church, by virtue of a license from the 
crown; but by the statute of Henry VIII, chapter 20, the 
ancient right of nomination was in effect restored to the crown ; 
it being enacted that at every future avoidance of a bishop- 



76 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

rick the king or queen may send the dean and chapter his 
usual license to proceed to election, which is always to be ac- 
companied with a letter missive from the king or queen con- 
taining the name of the person whom he would have them 
elect, and if the dean and chapter delay their election above 
twelve days the nomination shall devolve on the king or queen 
who may by letters patent appoint such person as he or she 
pleases. 

A bishop, says Judge Blackstone, has three powers : First, 
of ordination, which he acquires on his consecration, and 
thereby may confer orders in any place throughout the world : 
Secondly^ of jurisdiction which is limited and confined to his 
see, and, Thirdly ; of administration of government of the 
revenues both which last powers he gains by his confirma- 
tion. 

The bishop consecrates churches, ordains, admits and in- 
stitutes priests, confirms, suspends, excommunicates, grants 
licenses for marriage, makes probates of wills, etc. 

Each diocese is divided into parishes, and each parish is 
supplied by law with a priest to officiate within his prescribed 
limits. To him the tithes are paid, and this stipend or salary 
is, called a benefice. Some of the incumbents have curates 
to officiate for them who also have small salaries, and when 
this living thus accrues to the rector or vicar, without em- 
ployment except by his curate, his benefice is called a sine- 
cure. 

As every church officer from the archbishop of Canterbury 
to the sexton of every church is appointed by the government, 
there is a strong tendency to conform their religious move- 
ments to the caprice of the aristocracy of the realm, greatly 
to the detriment of its spirituality. It is thought that for ages 
there has been very little but the form of religion in the church 
of England, and that the mass of real piety usually goes to the 
non-conformists and dissenters. They are composed of Wes- 
leyan Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Indepen- 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 77 

dents, Baptists and others, with whom there is a large and in- 
creasing body of piety and influence. As the leaders of gov- 
ernment are more decidely politicians than christians, and 
wish to sustain the anci^it tory principles of government 
instead of those more liberal, it would be very natural for 
them to conform their religious principles to their politics ; 
and as they believe that the doctrines of the reformation will 
prove injurious if not finally fatal to monarchy they have 
brought forth Puseyism. 

As a system this is a virtual renunciation of Protestantism, 
and a return to Popery, in nearly all but the name ; and they 
are even endeavoring to change that, and call themselves the 
" Reformed Catholic Church of England." It is feared that 
these new doctrines will stand a great chance to prevail in 
that country for the following reasons. 

1. It will be for the interest of the leaders of the nation. 
They hold important offices with high salaries attached to 
them by law, but are dependent on the crown for the tenure 
of those offices. Should the principles of Protestantism pre- 
vail, with their tendencies to liberal governments, they would 
have no assurances of perpetuity in those stations for them- 
selves or their lineal descendents, hence their interests loudly 
demand that they favor the more vigorous government. 

2. Many believe it to be their duty to sustain Popery be- 
cause the interests of the legitimate thrones of all Europe de- 
mand it. They believe that monarchy as found in the "Holy 
Alliance" is of God, and that without it the whole world will 
become a world of republicans. 

3. Many fear the influence of dissenters, and believe that 
their course tends to weaken the bands of society, and dissolve 
the union of church and state, and that by its laxness on the 
rude masses it would be worse than Popery itself. 

4. The liturgy of the English prayer book teaches Pusey- 
ism outright. Instance, in the baptism of infants, the ex- 
plicit doctrine of the liturgy is that a child that is baptized in 



7*8 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

a- proper manner is regenerated by the Holy Ghost. The 
language is : The " minister" after the baptism and making 
the sign of the cross is commanded to "say," " seeing now 
dearly beloved that this child is regenerated and grafted into 
the body of Christ's church, let us give thanks unto God for 
these benefits" etc. "We yield thee' hearty thanks most 
merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this 
infant with thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine own 
child by adoption and to incorporate him into thy holy 
church." But the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is still 
more clearly held forth in reference to "those of riper years." 
In the canonical directions the people are told truly that " all 
men are conceived and born in sin, and that none can enter 
into the kingdom of God except he be regenerated and born 
anew of water and the Holy Ghost" etc., and prayers are di- 
rected to be offered that they may " be baptized with water 
and the Holy Ghost :" but after baptism and the sign of the 
cross, the minister is directed to say,, "seeing now, dearly 
beloved that these persons are regenerated and grafted into 
the body of Christ's church, let us give thanks unto Almighty 
God for these benefits." The thanksgiving then follows, and 
then this prayer, " give the Holy Spirit to these persons : 
that being now born again and made heirs of everlasting sal- 
vation through our Lord Jesus Christ they may continue thy 
servants," etc. 

Thus the Puseyites have the prayer 'book on their side. — 
Again, the liturgy nowhere demands a change of heart or 
evidence of piety when they go to be confirmed by the bish- 
op. After baptism is administered the minister is directed to 
say : '"Ye are to take care that this child be brought to the 
bishop to be confirmed by him so soon as he can say the 
creed, the Lord's prayer, and the' ten commandments, and is 
sufficiently instructed in the other parts of the church cate- 
chism: set forth for that purpose." When the candidate comes 
la, be; confirmed., ha is interrogated, thus :. "-What is your 



EPISCOPACY IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 79 

name? Ans, N. orM. Quest. Who gave you this name ? 
Ans. My sponsors in baptism, wherein I was made a member 
of Christ, the child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom 
of heaven." Thus the candidate has a right to confirmation 
who has been baptized and learned to say what is taught him, 
without conversion or piety, and as the liturgy teaches Pusey- 
ism we infer that it may prevail in England. 

5. It is feared that a great portion of the priesthood know 
little or nothing of experimental religion. They have com- 
plied with the canons of the church, pursued their course of 
studies prescribed by the bishop, passed examination, present- 
ed their certificates for ordination, and have thus acquired a 
right to holy orders : and if there is no crime found against 
them -they are ordained, without personal piety. Being thus 
destitute of spirituality they view all these movements poli- 
tically, and as it would throw almost unlimited power into 
their hands to reinstate auricular confession, and other mum- 
meries of Popery, for the great masses, they of course tend 
towards Puseyism. 

6. Many of the priesthood are under the influence of Jes- 
uits, and it is believed that quite a number are secretly Jesuits 
themselves, and those classes too would favor Puseyism of 
course. 

Some go so far as to refuse to read the church service at 
the burial of the children of dissenters, and then give them to 
understand that without it their children will go to hell, and 
as the lands are mostly owned by the aristocracy who sire 
generally Puseyites, they frequently require of dissenters to 
renounce their religion at the peril of being expelled from 
the lands, and thus some of them endeavor like mother 
church, to place the iron heel of oppression on all who do not 
submit to their dictation. The descent is rapid. Dr. Lush- 
ington it seems has decided that " the holding of Roman 
catholic, doctrines is, not. sufficient to deprive .a- clergyman, off 



80 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

his living, and that the English church is not Protestant, nor 
does she require her members to profess Protestantism." 

To counteract this influence of the establishment there is 
a vast array of learning, piety and devotion among the non- 
conformists and dissenters and popular classes of common 
people ; but unless they shall arouse sufficient union, potency 
and influence, among themselves, to check successfully the 
downward rush to Popery, the civil and religious liberties of 
that country must soon be terminated. The darkness of the 
middle ages, or the increasing light of the nineteenth century 
are at stake ; the aristocracy and dependents on the crown, 
are mostly for the former ; the common people for the latter. 
Thus while all Europe is in religious commotion struggling 
for freedom of conscience, and while the pope sustained by a 
hundred princes, is trying to fix his iron manacles upon the 
bodies and souls of the populace, a crisis is approaching in 
England, but the sequel is yet involved in the mysteries of 
the precarious future. 



CHAPTER XI. 



OP EPISCOPACY AS FOUND IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The constitution of this church was adopted by the Gene- 
ral Convention in Philadelphia on the second day of October 
1789. It derives its origin from the church of England, and 
is governed by a constitution and canons, framed by the 
General Convention. The first canon adopted is as follows : 
" In this church there shall always be three orders in the min- 
istry, viz : Bishops, Priests and Deacons." They have no 
archbishops, but the senior bishop presides in their deliberative 
bodies. 

They hold General Conventions triennially, composed of 
an upper and lower house. The upper house consists of bish- 
ops only, who have a right to originate and propose acts for 
the concurrence of the lower house, and when acts have pass- 
ed the lower house, the house of bishops still have a negative 
thereon. The lower house, called the house of deputies, is 
composed of clergymen, and either laymen or members of 
their congregation who are not communicants ; and each dio- 
cese is represented by deputies, not exceeding four of each 
order, chosen by the convention of the diocese. 

The several United States, each usually form a separate 
diocese, excepting for instance the state of New York, which 
contains two ; and each bishop is required to confine " the 
exercise of the episcopal office to his proper diocese or dis- 
trict, unless requested to ordain or confirm or perform other 
act of the episcopal office, by any church destitute of a bishop." 



82 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 



Each diocese holds a diocesan convention annually, at which 
the bishop presides ; and the constitution and canons of each 
diocese are similar to those of the whole church, only adapted 
to their several circumstances. According to the returns 
published in 1845, there are twenty seven dioceses in the 
United States, supplied .'with bishops; but unlike those in 
England each diocese is a spiritual association, and not a tem- 
poral barony. The bishops are chosen agreeably to the rules 
fixed by the convention of each diocese, and the clergymen 
are amenable for their conduct to the bishop of the diocese. 
Each diocese is independent in the support of the episcopate, 
and the bishops receive their salaries from what is called the 
"episcopal fund," the principal of which is usually donated by 
opulent individuals, and permanently secured by real estate, 
to trustees of the fund for the support of the episcopate, at 
twice, its value, exclusive of buildings, and the interest is paid 
to them for their annual support. . Their salaries usually range 
at from two to six or seven thousand dollars ; which is small 
compared with what the bishops of the established church of 
England receive, but large compared with those of other 
American ministers. 

The doctrine of apostolic succession is fundamental in the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. It profess- 
es to be derived from Bishop Seabury of Scotland, and Bish- 
ops White, Provost and Madison of the church of England. 
The first was consecrated at Aberdeen in Scotland, and the 
last thiee in the chapel of the archiepiscopal palace at Lam- 
beth in England. The first bishop consecrated in the United 
States was Dr. Claggett, in Trinity church Sept. 17, 1792, 
and a regular succession from the above has been preserved 
to the present time. It has been alledged that the reason why 
so much stress is laid upon this part of their church polity is, 
that it increases the episcopal and sacerdotal power, for if 
they could trace their succession to: the apostles, and prove 
an .unbroken line, they suppose they could induce the belief 






EPISCOPACY IN THE UNITED STATES. . 88 

that they, and they only, have exclusive authority from the 
great Head of the church. 

By virtue of this regular succession the; bishops claim the 
sole right of admitting persons to church membership by con- 
firmation, the body ecclesiastic assumes the: appellation of 
" the church," and claims the exclusive right of precedence 
over other denominations ; and each clergyman exercises the 
prerogative of governing his own flock, of deciding all ques- 
tions in controversy, and of trying and expelling his members, 
without the intervention of a committee or jury or session or 
any other tribunal to modify or restrict his power : and from 
his decision there is no appeal but to the bishop, to whom the 
clergyman is accountable for his conduct. 

The aspect of things in this- church has been greatly chang- 
ed since the- introduction of Puseyism, but like the revolution 
effected in the Quaker Church by the Hixite schism, and like 
all other ecclesiastical changes, it brought out real sentiments 
which had been permitted to lie dormant. The political rea- 
sons which obtain in England for any class of citizens to sus- 
tain this new creed cannot obtain here ; but notwithstanding 
this there seems to be a strong and strange tendency in that 
direction, a great dereliction toward Popery. This is obvious 
in view of the following considerations. 

1. They, or at least some of them, assert, that -the minis- 
ters of Jesus Christ are prophets, priests and kings, and that 
they now possess the same authority that he. did, while on 
earth. 

2. That the ministry are a priesthood, and that through 
their intervention sins may be pardoned. 

3. That the eucharist is a -proper sacrifice, and that when 
administered to the faithful, by ministers of the succession, 
their sins are remitted. > 

4. The downward tendency was apparent in the resolutions 
relating to Bishop Onderdonk in the diocesan convention in 
New York in 1845, when the vote of . the clergymen, sup- 



84 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

posed to be a test of the superior strength of Puseyism was 
seventy six to forty. 

5. In the change of the name of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church to that of the " Reformed Catholic Church" in some 
of their standard works ; and in the appellation of " Catholic 
Bishop of Maryland" assumed by the bishop himself. 

6. The tendency to Puseyism is apparent in the continual 
assertions of some of the bishops and clergymen that they are 
the only true apostolical church, being in the only true suc- 
cession ; and that all others if saved at all must be saved by 
the uncovenanted mercies of God. This is the more astoun- 
ding in view of the scantiness of the numbers of communicants 
in their ecclesiastical compact. 

When these commotions will cease none can tell. With 
the prayer book and many of the clergy in favor of Puseyism, 
and with the Scriptures and the intelligence and piety of the 
church against it, the sequel is doubtful ; and whether the 
contest will finally terminate in a disruption of the church, or 
otherwise, is yet uncertain. 



CHAPTER XII. 



OF THE PRESBYTERIAL FORM OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

This forms a connecting link between Episcopal and Con- 
gregational polity. It affirms in opposition to Episcopacy, 
that there is no order in the church as established by our Lord 
and his apostles superior to that of presbyters : that all min- 
isters are equal by their commission ; and that presbyter and 
bishop though different words are of the same import. It is 
distinguished from Congregationalism in that it asserts that the 
authority of ministers to preach the gospel, administer the 
sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, and' to feed the 
flock of Christ is derived from the Holy Ghost by the impo- 
sition of the hands of the presbytery, as opposed to the inde- 
pendent plan of the common rights of christians.- They be- 
lieve that prelacy was gradually established 9 upon the primi- 
tive practice of making the office of moderator permanent. 
They argue that as the apostles planted churches by ordain- 
ing bishops and deacons in every city, that as the same min- 
isters are indiscriminately denominated bishops and presby- 
ters and that as we nowhere read of bishops, presbyters and 
deacons in one church, we conclude 1 that bishops and presby- 
ters are two names for the same office, and that its identity 
being established, the presbyter is the highest permanent of- 
ficer in the church, and the true successor of the apostles. 

A standard author, Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton, says : 
" In every church completely organized, that is, furnished 
with all the officers which Christ has instituted, and which are 
necessary for carrying into full effect the laws of his king- 
dom, there ought to be three classes of officers, viz : at least 



'36 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

one Teaching Elder, Bishop, or Pastor — a bench of Ruling 
Elders — and Deacons. The first to " minister in the word 
and doctrine" and to dispense the sacraments; the second to 
assist in the inspection and government of the church ; and 
the third to "serve tables:" that is, to take care of the 
church's funds destined for the support of the poor, aud some- 
times to manage whatever relates to the temporal support of 
the gospel and its ministers." 

This form of Church government recognizes pour dis- 
tinct JUDICATORIES. 

The first and lowest is that of the church sessions, com- 
posed of the pastor and ruling elders of a particular congre- 
gation ; and the minister is moderator, and performs the 
duties usually assigned to the chairman of a committee, in all 
the meetings of the elders. This judicatory judges of tho 
qualifications of applicants for membership, and receives or 
rejects them by vote of the majority present ; they hear com- 
plaints, institute trials, and censure or acquit the accused .; 
they appoint one ruling eider of their number to attend each 
meeting of the ]£*esbytery, and take the general oversight of 
the spiritual concerns of the church. 

The second is the presbytery, composed of all the minis- 
ters, not less than three, and one ruling elder from each con- 
gregation within a certain district. To this judicatory is 
entrusted the revision of the proceedings of the sessions un- 
der them ; the decision of appeals and complaints ; the licens- 
ing of candidates ; the ordination, installation and judging of 
ministers ; the reception, formation, division and uniting of 
churches ; the condemnation of erroneous opinions ; the re- 
dressing of grievances ; and in general the ordering of what- 
ever pertains to the spiritual welfare of the churches under 
their care. Presbyteries appoint an equal number of teach- 
ing and ruling elders to be their commissioners to the Gen- 
eral Assembly ; and decide on all alterations and revisions of 



PRESBYTERIAL FORM OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 87 

the constitution of the church, which are recommended to 
them by the General Assembly. 

The third is the synod, composed of the pastors and rul- 
ing elders within a larger district, including at least three 
presbyteries. It meets annually, and reviews the proceed- 
ings of the presbyteries under their care ; examines their re- 
cords for approbation or censure ; confirms or reverses their 
decisions, erects, divides or unites presbyteries, and takes 
such orders with respect to the judicatories under their care 
as they judge needful, and keeps a record of its proceedings 
to submit to the General Assembly. 

The fourth and highest judicatory is the general assembly. 
It is the bond of union over the whole church, the source of 
general counsel in cases ot difficulty, and the ulterior resort 
by way of appeal from the inferior judicatories. It consists of 
an equal delegation of pastors and ruling elders from each pres- 
bytery, and each presbytery consisting of not more than twenty 
four members is entitled to a representation of- one minister 
and one ruling elder, and in like proportion for every twenty- 
four members. These delegates are styled commissioners to 
the General Assembly. They review the records of Synods, 
decide appeals, erect new synods, correspond with foreign 
churches, and take a general supervision of the whole church. 

The great fundamental principle of the presbyterial form 

of church government is ; that the several different congrega- 
tions of believers taken collectively constitute the church; 
that a larger part of the church or a representation of it should 
govern the smaller, and that a representation of the whole 
should govern and determine in regard to every part, and to all 
the parts united: and consequently, that appeals may be carried 
from lower to higher judicatories, till they are finally decided 
by the collected wisdom, and united voice of the whole church. 
Thus all the different congregations under the care of the 
General Assembly are considered as the Presbyterian church 



88 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

in the United States ; meeting for the sake of convenience 
and edification in their several places of worship. 

This mode of ecclesiastical government prevails most ex- 
tensively in Scotland. It was brought there from Geneva, by 
John Knox, the famous Scotch reformer, frequently styled the 
apostle of Scotland. 

The first Presbyterian minister came- to America in 1699, 
the first church was organized in Philadelphia' about the year 
1703, and the first presbytery the next year.-. In 1716 the 
first synod ; was formed, comprising- four presbyteries, and the 
first meeting of the General Assembly was in 1789. 

This church was divided in May 1837, and the General 
Assembly then set in two different places, and they were de- 
nominated the Old and New School. The Old School profess 
that the New have departed from the original landmarks 
both in doctrine and discipline ; while the New School re- 
pel the charge^ and contend that one principal cause of the 
division was, that the Old School were jealous of- the growing 
prosperity of the northern portion of the church, especially 
in Western New York, and Northern Ohio ; and that they 
excinded those synods in order to retain the church offices 
in Philadelphia and the South. There is but little difference 
in their doctrines and perhaps less in their discipline, except 
that the New School hold their General Assemblies triennially 
instead of annually, and carry appeals to the Synod only, and 
not to the General Assembly. But the New School General 
Assembly of 1846 appointed another for 1847, and they have 
entertained an appeal so far as to give advisory direction to 
a synod, and it is thought by many that the church will finally 
reunite and become one. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



OF THE CONGREGATIONAL FORM OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

This form of ecclesiastical polity regards every church as 
a distinct community, independent of all others, and as con- 
taining within itself what is necessary for its own government. 
Rejecting the subordination of the clergy, and all dependence 
on other assemblies, except of an advisory kind, it declares 
that a church is composed of a single congregation with; a 
pastor and two or more deacons; and that aecordingrtouhe 
New Testament it has plenary ecclesiastical jurisdiction over 
all its members, independent of the authority of bishops or 
archbishops, synods, presbyteries or any other ecclesiastical 
assemblies. This form of government is less tangible, and 
the distinct lines of demarkation are drawn with more diffi- 
culty and with less precision than those of others ; from the 
fact that it has no common standard of doctrine or discipline, 
only as each separatccongregation shall please to adopt one 
or the other. 

Although the Saybrook platform has been considered a kind 
of standard both of doctrine and polity for many of these 
churches, yet not strictly binding unless specially adopted by 
each individual church. 

They generally consider this form of church government 
of divine institution, and as originating with the apostles, yet 
many of them frequently acknowledge that true religion 
might flourish under the Episcopal or Presbyterial polity, 
while others assert that this form is necessary to constitute a 
true church, and when it does not exist there is no church. 

Congregationalism divests the ministry of the power of ex- 



90 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

pelling members of the church, and retains it in the aggre- 
gate body of the laity. The strongest Scriptural evidence in 
favor of their system, and that most frequently claimed and 
quoted by them is Matt. -18, 15,17, "Moreover, if thy brother 
shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between 
thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained 
thy brother, But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee 
one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses 
everv word mav be established. And if he shall nesrlect to 
hear them, tell it unto the church : but if he neglect to hear the 
church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." 
This is well illustrated in the u Notes on the Discipline" as 
follows :■ " These words were addressed to the apostles, and 
through them to all the ministers of Christ to the end of the 
world. This is evident from the words immediately following 
the quotation, and which are a continuation of the same para- 
graph, and could not belong to the private members of a church. 
The first step then which is to be taken, is to tell the offender 
of his fault in private icithout any witness. Here is the se- 
cret reproof of the minister himself. But if he will not hear 
and amend, the second step is, that the minister take with him 
two or three witnesses. Here is the reproof of the minister 
before witnesses. And if he shall neglect to hear them, shall 
these two or three witnesses proceed to exclude him ? No : 
they have no such authority : but 'tell it unto the church.' 
This is the third step. Has the church then any authority to 
punish him ? No : their whole authority lies in advising 
and reproving him, ' But if,' after such advice and reproof, 
4 he neglect to hear the church, 'let him be uxto thee as a 
heathen man and a publican.'' Can any one imagine that the 
minister only is to treat the offender thus ; and that the rest 
of the church are to give him the right hand of fellowship % 
This cannot be. The minister is undoubtedly to exclude him 
from the communion of the church. This is the last step. 
Then follow immediately those words of our Lord, ' Whatso- 



CONGREGATIONAL FORM OF GHURCK GOVERNMENT. 91 

ever ye shall bind on earth. shall be bound-in heaven : and 
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven :' 
which words, as we before observed, confine the power to 
ministers, whose church censures, as far as they are consis- 
tent with the word of God, (for we cannot suppose-the author- 
ity goes further,) shall be confirmed and supported in heaven : 
and the faithful ministers of God, v/ho have been more or less 
invested with the superintendency of the church, have found 
this promise verified. The latter words cannot be supposed 
to relate to an external exclusion from glory, for that would 
preclude the necessity of the day of judgment in respect to 
those so excommunicated. But we repeat, here is not a word 
said of the church's authority either to judge or censure.. 
On the contrary, the whole authority is expressly delivered 
into the hands of the minister." — History of the Biscijjline, 
pp< 332. 

To this might be added the fact that our Lord, in the book 
of Revelations, lays the responsibility of the church's purity 
on "the angel of the church," which shews that the power of 
censure and expulsion lay on the minister alone, and not on 
the church. 

The Congregationalists formed a branch of the Puritans, a 
body of Christians who favored a farther degree of reforma- 
tion in the church of England than was adopted by Queen 
Elizabeth, and a purer form of discipline and worship. They 
originated in the northern counties of England by forming 
themselves into a church about the year 1602, with the learned 
and pious John Robinson, a Norfolk- divine, as their founder. 
He was banished from his native country for non-conformity, 
and in the year 1607 removed to Amsterdam and in the year 
following to Leyden in Holland ; but these persecutions 
against the puritans only served to lay the foundation, broad 
and deep, for a vast republic, in the western world. They 
had a strong desire to transmit to posterity their evangelical 
doctrines, with' civil and religious liberty, when they embar- 



92 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

ked for the new world ; and from on board the Mayflower 
they planted their feet on the rock of Plymouth on the 22d, 
of Dec. 1620, " bearing hither the ark of God and the ele- 
ments of a mighty empire." The tyranny of the English 
hierarchy exercised by the most rigorous proscriptions of a 
bigoted prelate, and an arbitrary king, drove persons of all 
ranks, ministers, and their congregations across the Atlantic ; 
and all these were formed into Congregational churches, after 
the model of the Plymouth, church. They possessed full pow- 
er to choose their own officers, enact their own laws, and 
regulate all their internal concerns ; but the officers main- 
tained their government and discipline with the consent and 
concurrence of the brotherhood, in the assembled- fraternity 
ot which the supreme power was always lodged. 

There could of course be no appeal from the decisions of 
each church, but in cases of difficulty councils of pastors and 
delegates from neighboring: churches were called to assist in 
their settlement ; though* their decisions were not binding, 
but advisory. Such councils, called Associations, are still the 
ecclesiastical tribunals acknowledged in the Congregational 
churches in Massachusetts, and most of the other New Eng- 
land States.. In Connecticut these Associations are said to be 
superseded by Consociations, or judicatories composed of pas- 
tors and. delegates of churches within prescribed districts, 
having no original jurisdiction over the churches, but forming 
tribunals of appeal and decision ; and long experience has 
taught them that they are of incalculable benefit in maintaining 
the peace and harmony of the churches. This holding of as- 
sociations and consociations is what constitutes the difference 
between Congregationalists of the Massachusetts order, and 
those of the Connecticut order. 

For the further preservation of unity each State in New 
England holds an annual General Association, composed of 
delegates from the district associations, at which they receive 
delegates from the General Associations of other States as 



CONGREGATIONAL FORM OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 93 

well as delegates from the Old and New School Presbyterian 
churches. These councils are not courts of appeal, but are 
advisory, and designed for the mutual supervision and edifica- 
tion of the whole. 

Another peculiar feature in their ecclesiastical polity relates 
to the distinction between their churches and congregations. 
While in some respects they are united, in others they are dis- 
tinct and independent corporations. While in the settlement 
of a minister each exercises a separate agency their concur- 
rence is indispensable to the validity of the act. As the con- 
gregation cannot place a minister over the church without 
their consent, and as the church has not the power without 
the concurrent voice of the congregation, they claim that a 
mutual interest is excited in the pastor, that the rights of each 
are secured, and that the welfare of the general cause is greatly 
promoted. But it is thought to be obvious that this arrange- 
ment has had a tendency to secularize and cripple the power 
of the ministry ; and that they would be strongly tempted to 
frame their sermons not only to please laymen, but also the 
men of the world. 

Another original peculiarity in New England Congrega- 
tionalism was the support of religion by law. These enact- 
ments with some modifications continued in force more than 
one hundred and fifty years ; and thus an ecclesiastical es- 
tablishment was formed and supported by the civil power, 
called the " standing order," which, in the sequel, like all 
such establishments had a disastrous effect on the church in 
several ways : 

1. It fostered a spirit ot slumber, formality and worldly 
mindedness, as they reposed in the church, under the protec- 
tion of law. 

2. As other denominations multiplied they felt oppressed, 
and were strongly inclined to shake off the yoke of what they 
considered ecclesiastical despotism. 

3. It induced unbelievers to cavil : when they were taxed 



1)4 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

without their consent to build churches, and pay ministers 
salaries ; when they saw the poor man's cow and other scanty 
©hatiles seized and sold to support ministers of whose doctrines 
and usages they did not approve, they were offended and rose 
up in opposition. 

Another item in the history of Congregational economy 
which could not in fairness be passed over relates to the san- 
guinary laws passed against the Quakers ; which some have 
called intolerance and persecution, even bordering on despo- 
tism. Those laws forbid masters of vessels from bringing 
Quakers into Massachusetts on penalty of one hundred pounds. 
In Barber's Historical Collections pp. 23 we read ;" Any 
Quaker after the first conviction, if a man, was to lose one 
ear, and for the second the other : a woman each time to be 
severly whipped, and the third, whether man or woman to 
have their tongues bored through with a red hot iron, and 
death to all Quakers who should return after banishment." 
In carrying the above laws -into effect four Quakers were ex- 
ecuted. 

Laws were enacted against the Baptists as well as Quakers, 
and the marriages solemnized by Methodist ministers were 
considered illegal, and those ministers were fined for marry- 
ing members of their own congregations, and it may justly be 
charged to the standing order that they endeavored to con- 
tinue the laws against other denominations till they finally 
arose and threw off the. yoke, which was not done- in Connect- 
icut till 1816. 

Yet notwithstanding all this in view of the times, the early 
Congregational churches of New England may be looked 
upon a models of excellence.' These sanguinary laws were 
made in a day of darkness, in relation to religious freedom. 
They had no example of religious toleration in either hemis- 
phere, and the law punishing Quakers, who returned from 
banishment with death was enacted by a very small majority. 

Having, thus, examined the three principal :unmixed forms 



CONGREGATIONAL FORM OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 95 

of- church polity, viz : Episcopal, Presbyterial and Congre- 
gational, we shall survey the excellencies, defects and tenden- 
dencies of each form in a subsequent chapter of this work un- 
der the head of the philosophy of ecclesiastical government, 
and close this chapter with the words of Mr. Gisborne. . 

" How then in any particular country is the Christian church 
to be governed ?" " Every separate congregation," answers 
the Independent, " is a sovereign church amenable to no ex- 
trinsic jurisdiction, and entitled to no jurisdiction over other 
churches.'' " That mode of government," replies the Pres- 
byterian, " is calculated to destroy unity, co-operation, and 
concord among christians. All congregations within the same, 
which agree in doctrine, ought to be under the general super- 
intendence of a representative assembly, composed of their 
ministers and delegates." " Such a representative assembly," 
returns the Episcopalian, ." wants vigor and dispatch, and is 
perpetually open to tumult and partiality and faction. Divide 
the country into dioceses, and station a -bishop in each, armed 
with sufficient authority, and restrained by adequate laws, 
from abusing it. Such was the apostolic government of the 
church — such, perhaps," he adds " was the government en- 
joined on succeeding ages." " Away," cries the Papist, 
" with these treasonable discussions. The Pope, the successor 
of St. Peter, is by divine right the only source of ecclesiasti- 
cal power, the universal monarch of the universal church." 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE CHURCH A THEOCRACY. 



A Theocracy is a government administered by the direction 
of God as Lawgiver. It is distinguished from all the govern- 
ments under the administration of men, and has generally been 
applied to the political code of the Jewish economy. Any 
community governed by laws enacted by God himself, and 
designed to be executed by officers of his own appointment 
is a Theocracy, and such has been the church of God in every 
age. 

When we advert to the early progenitors of the human 
race, we find that their moral and religious duties were pre- 
scribed by Divine authority ; and the patriarchs directly an- 
terior to the Mosaic dispensation were taught of God in rela- 
tion to their duties and obligations, both moral and religious. 
The law given at Sinai, by Jehovah, delineating the duties of 
men, loudly proclaims its Author as the universal Legislator 
over his own dominions. He claimed and exercised the right 
to originate his own laws, and communicated his will by his 
servant Moses. 

Under the gospel dispensation our Lord has laid down laws 
which are to govern his church in every age, and in every 
nation, to the end of time ; and under his special direction 
these laws are to be administered by officers appointed by 
himself; hence the church of Christ is just as clearly a The- 
ocracy as was the Jewish economy. 

The Christian code, with its high origin, its changeless 
nature, and its everlasting sanctions, was communicated to 



THE CHURCH A THEOCRACY. 97 

the apostles by our Lord himself, not to be altered. Addition 
or diminution were forbidden under the severest penalties. 
When about to crown the labors of his eventful earthly mis- 
sion by commissioning his apostles to preach the gospel in all 
the world, he said : " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost : Teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you." 'He repudiates all 
the doctrines of men. He recognizes no human authority, 
but distinctly asserts his own. He is not merely the interpre- 
ter of law, but the Legislator. He promulgated the original 
precept, he " spake as never^man spake" he " taught as one 
having authority" he has laid the church under obligations to 
exact obedience, and enforced his laws with everlasting sanc- 
tions. When he says, "Therefore whosoever heareth these 
sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise 
man, which built his house upon a rock ;" he asserts that the 
eternal interests of men depend on their hearing and doing 
Ids sayings : he refers to no higher authority, but promises 
safety to the obedient, and threatens final destruction to the 
disobedient. Thus the Son of God presides over his house- 
hold, takes cognizance of the church he purchased with his 
own blood, and lays down the great outlines of christian duty 
by fixing indelible landmarks, as obedience and love 'to God, 
and our neighbor, and enjoined the sacraments of baptism and 
the Lord's Supper ; but he has not definitely specified the 
form of church polity. Every church therefore is at liberty 
to adopt its own form, only so as not to contravene the law of 
Christ. Thus our Lord is the universal Lawgiver, " the head 
of the body the church" and his church is a Theocracy. He 
is our Prince and Savior, he originated the church, and has 
always retained in his own hands its government ; he never 
relinquished his right to 'legislate and rule : if he did, when 
was it, and where is the proof? He calls whom he will to be 
his ministers, and none are truly such but those thus chosen. 



98 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

Heb. 5, 4. " And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but 
he that is called of God as was Aaron." Acts 13, 2. " The 
Holy Ghost said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the 
work whereunto I have called them." 

The apostles might not choose that calling for themselves, 
but were appointed, and were required to teach, not what they 
pleased, but what their Lord taught them ; and to this they 
adhered in all their ministrations : they never issued a com- 
mand, or promulgated a doctrine, either on their own author- 
ity, or that of the Holy Spirit as Lawgiver, but on that of 
Christ. Paul did not receive his apostleship from the Spirit, 
nor from regeneration, nor from the apostles ; but from Christ 
personally; and refers to this when iie says, "Am I not an 
apostle," " have I not seen the Lord Jesus V And speaking 
of the Lord ; s Supper to the Corinthians, instead of refering 
to spiritual revelations he says ; " I have received of the Lord 
that which I also delivered unto you." The apostles them- 
selves gave no commandment, and taught no doctrines, but what 
had been communicated by their Lord, and they exhorted the 
churches to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to 
the saints. 

Our Lord still governs his church, and of course it is a 
Theocracy, he calls and dismisses his own workmen. He is 
the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord 
of lords. Let us trust him, and love him, and glory in him. 
The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, let us be glad and re- 
joice and give honor to him ; Let the children of Zion be joy- 
ful in their King. 



CHAPTER XV 



CONSEQUENCES RESULTING FROM THE FACT THAT THE 
CHURCH IS A THEOCRACY, 

Having seen that the church is a Theocracy, that the Lord 
is its only Ruler, and that his ministers as stewards are requir- 
ed to teach " whatsoever he has commanded ;" we now pro- 
ceed to shew the inevitable consequences resulting from 
that great truth. 

I. We see the fallacy of the pretensions of the Roman 
church in claiming that the bulls of popes, and the decisions 
of councils are of equal authority with the teaching of Christ 
in the Scriptures. They enjoin not what he commanded, but 
what they please to decree. The successors of the fisherman 
have strangely forgotten his words : 2 Pet. 1. 19. " We have 
also a more sure word of prophecy ; whereunto ye do well 
that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, 
until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." 

II. We observe the folly of those who claim immediate in- 
spiration, who see wondrous visions, and find new revela- 
tions, and divine illuminations, and new lights. They should 
believe what Christ taught, and do what he commanded, and 
not what their fancies may imagine, and their caprice invent. 
They too- might remember the " more sure word of prophecy," 

III. These truths teach us that ecclesiastical bodies have no 
right to legislate. It would be trenching on the claims 
of Christ, . He has the right as universal Lawgiver, and none 
else. Neither General Assemblies, nor General Conferences, 
nor .General Conventions, nor Consistories, nor Synods, nor 



100 'ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

any other ecclesiastical bodies have a right to make laws 5 for 
as Christ has already given all the commands he ever will till 
he comes again at the end of the world, and as it is the business 
of the church to obey and not legislate ; so all ecclesiastical 
assemblies are judical and executive, and not legislative bodies. 
IV. We see the inconsistency of lay delegation in 
ecclesiastical bodies. 

This is obvious in view of the following considerations : 
1. It proceeds on wrong premises : on the supposition that 
those bodies have a right to make laws, and therefore the peo- 
ple should be represented, as in any other legislative body ; but 
who gave authority to men to usurp the dominion of the Son 
of God and legislate ? Addition or diminution are expressh 
forbidden under the most dreadful penalties, and that command 
is the very last in all the Bible that it may be the more im- 
pressive. 

2. Lay delegation is believed to be unscriptural, but if other- 
wise where may a precept or example be found % It is readily 
granted that it is a popular mode of operation, but where is 
the scriptural authority 1 If it can be found any where, it 
may be in the 15th chapter of Acts. Xow u to the law and 
to the testimony' verse 22d, " Then pleased it the apostles 
and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their 
own company to Antioch, with Paul and Barnabas, namely, 
Judas, surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the 
brethren." 5 Now say those who contend that lay delegation 
is scriptural, we see the lay delegates appointed, they are 
u chosen men of their own company" and t; chief men among 
the brethren" and are to go with the apostles to decide an 
appealed case in the church. As the question turns on that 
point, it is important to examine and know whether they 
were really laymen or ministers. The 32d verse of the same 
chapter says, " And Judas and Silas, being prophets also 
themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words and con- 
firmed them." And who were those prophets ?- As they 



THE CHURCH A THEOCRACY, ITS CONSEQUENCES. 1>01 

were public speakers we believe they were ministers ; yea,, 
says the Episcopalian, diocesan bishops, for they confirmed 
the brethren. But what says the scripture % They were 
perhaps inferior to the apostles : Eph.. 3, 5, "Which in other 
ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now 
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." 
But while they were inferior to the apostles they were supe- 
rior to all other teachers even to evangelists and pastors. Eph. 
4. 11. "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets ;, 
and some evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers." 
Thus by fair interpretation of Scripture they were ministers, 
and this is confirmed by commentators such as Dr. Clark, and. 
Matthew Henry, and even Albert Barnes the distinguished 
Presbyterian annotator, though it would exactly tally with the 
Presbyterian polity to have them ruling elders, and not min- 
isters, yet he frankly acknowledges that they were " preach- 
ers." Dr. McLoed also a standard author in the Presbyterian, 
church says, "But Barsabas and Silas were ministers." Now 
if this were the fact, as is agreed on all hands, where is the- 
Scripture which gives any precept or example, for lay dele- 
gation ? 

3. It did not obtain in the early days of the apostolic church ;. 
for even as late as the council of Carthage, A. D. 256, where 
there were eighty-seven bishops, besides other ministers, and; 
" a great part of the laity were present also ;" but as the names 
of those' who voted were recorded, it does not appear that one 
of the laity voted. 

4. History admonishes us to beware ; and teaches that op- 
ulent laymen connected with ambitious clergymen, have in- 
variably been the bane of piety, tending to the union and cor- 
ruption of church and state, and to the final overthrow of civil 
and religious liberty. Till the days of Constantine the church 
remained tolerably pure ; but when he brought the civil and 
military power into alliance with the ecclesiastical, and flat- 
tered the pride of the ministry by amalgamating the wealth, 



'102 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

and power of the state with the interests of the -'church, the 
beauty of both was despoiled ; and so it remains' to this day 
in every country, both Catholic and Protestant, where the 
kingdoms of this world are blended with the kingdom of Christ. 

5. Ministers are the authorized expounders of the law of 
God. When Jesus Christ says to them "Teach all nations 
co observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you." 
he recognizes in himself, plenary legislative power, and makes 
ministers, and not laymen, the "teachers and expounders of 
his law ; and they only are responsible for its performance. 
The conferences in the Methodist Episcopal Church meet, 
not to intrude upon the prerogatives of Jesus Christ by legis- 
lating ; but to adapt prudential regulations to the exigencies 
of the times, and to provide for expounding and executing 
the unalterable law of God : and those moved by the Holy 
Ghost to preach the gospel are the only specially authorized 
expounders ; they are required to study, and give themselves 
wholly to these things ; they have no right to delegate any 
part of this responsibility to laymen, but should stay where 
God places them, and do what he commands them. If they 
really need a lay delegation it is proof positive that they are 
not the true ministers of Jesus Christ. 

If the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church were a legislative body, instead of a law. expounding 
judicatory, it might be highly practicable to have lay delegates, 
and two houses ; one corresponding with a senate, and the 
other a popular branch representing the membership ; but as 
the law is made, and unalterable, and perfect, and as ministers 
are the only specially authorized expounders of that law, be- 
ing called of God for that very purpose, they only are to com- 
pose that highest court of appellate jurisdiction ; and only one 
body is needful corresponding with a court of errors which is 
usually the senate only. 

6. Lay delegation is impracticable in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church from the well known difficulty in many con- 



THE CHURCH A THEOCRACY, ITS CONSEQUENCES. 103 

Terences, to find a suitable place to sustain that body during 
the time of its session, and conferences have been divided for 
the reason among others, that there was no convenient site 
within its bounds for that purpose ; but should lay represen- 
tation obtain, this evil would be doubled, or the conferences 
must be cut down to half their present size. 

7. But these conferences are already too large to transact 
business with facility, and all acquainted with parliamentary 
usages know how difficult it is to regulate an overgrown de- 
liberative bod}'. More time is needful to do a little, and this 
time must be taken from their important pastoral work. 
Again, each preacher at conference has his own appropriate 
business, such as missionary, periodical, sabbath school, etc. 
and to receive his annual appointment ; but the laymen would 
have nothing to do but to oversee the business of the ministers, 
with which i they are unacquainted, to help make laws when 
there are none to make, and to receive their appointments 
when they have none to receive. 

These remarks concerning lay delegation are designed to 
apply specially to the Methodist Episcopal Church on the de- 
fensive, and not to assail and depreciate the ecclesiastical polity 
of those churches who have chosen the more popular mode of 
appointing lay delegates to their judicatories. Let them con- 
tinue if they think proper, but when they reproach those who 
do not adopt that system with a willingness to depress the 
the laity, let them remember that their own system is unau- 
thorized by Scripture, and that for the Methodist Episcopal 
Church it is wholly impracticable. 

V. Lastly we see that if our Lord is the ruler of his church, 
and if ministers called by him are the duly authorized expoun- 
ders of his law, and are required to "teach all nations ;" how 
improper that public lecturers should obtrude themselves, and 
usurp their place, and dictate to them, and the church, what 
is their moral and religious duty. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

* 

OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH* 

Its Origin.. 

Methodism is unique. It originated in Oxford. It rose 
spontaneously from the exigencies of the times, and under the 
hand of God, it lives and goes forth and prospers. It is mis- 
sionary in its economy, combining the Episcopal, Presbyterial 
and Congregational forms of government, all modified, and ap- 
plied to itinerancy. Its polity like itself came without con- 
trivance or forethought, and was thus adapted to its own wants. 
Like modern philosophy, it tested the force of truth by experi- 
ment. When the multitudes were brought to God through 
the instrumentality of the W.esleys and their coadjutors, as 
they preached in the fields and highways for want of room, 
they found it necessary to arrange their converts in classes, 
to combine their strength, and perpetuate their piety ; and 
they acted directly in view of that necessity. When those 
classes needed overseers they appointed leaders over them,- 
and when they needed houses of worship they erected chapels. 
When their strong men of God were found apt to teach they 
used them as lay ministers, without requiring them to gradu- 
ate like the established clergy ; and when the work was great 
and the laborers few and several appointments needed a sup- 
ply from each man, it became necessary to establish an itiner- 
ancy. This distinguished Methodism from all other forms of 
Christianity in modern times. But this itinerant machinery 
must move in order and concert, hence arose the annual con- 
ferences, to - distribute and regulate their labors under, Mr.- 
Wesley. When the questions and answers oifthe conferences 
were published they were called minutes, and .when those min- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 105 

utes, were digested they gradually grew into the discipline of 
the united societies. This became the basis of the form of 
governnent, guided by the counsels of heaven, under the plas- 
tic hand of Mr. Wesley. 

Itinerancy, having locomotion, came to the western world. 
As the American colonies were under the British yoke, it was 
natural that the societies should be under the care of Mr. Wes- 
ley. The first society was established in the city of New- 
York in 1766 by Philip Embury ; and on the 24th' of October 
1769, the first two itinerant preachers landed on the American 
shore, viz. Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor. On the 
7th of October 177 1 Francis Asbury, and Richard Wright 
landed in Philadelphia, and on the 10th of the next' October 
Mr. Asbury received' a letter from Mr. Wesley appointing 
him General Assistant, Mr. Wesley himself still being- the ac- 
knowledged head of the societies both in Europe and Ameri- 
ca. Those having charge of circuits were called assistants, 
and those under the assistants were styled helpers. 

Mr; Asbury was thus constituted the head of all the preachers 
in America, with power to station them under the direction 
of Mr. Wesley himself. On the-third of June 1773 Thomas 
Rankin and George Shadford landed in Philadelphia, and " as 
Mr. Rankin had' travelled several years l6nger than Mr. As- 
bury, Mr. Wesley appointed him the General Assistant of the 
societies in America,'''' in place of Mr. Asbury. 

On the arrival of Mr. Rankin with these powers as Gene- 
ral Assistant, the first conference was convened in Philadel- 
phia, July 4. 1773, for -up to that' time the business had been 
transacted at the quarterly meetings. At this conference they 
recognized the authority of Mr. Wesley in America, as well 
as in Great Britain, as also the doctrine and discipline as con- 
tained in the minutes, to be the rule of conduct. 

After the commencement of the American revolution Mr. 
Rankin and others returned to England, and Mr. Asbury 
acted, by a vote of the conference, as General assistant. Up 



106 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

to 1784 the Methodists had not been considered a church but 
a society : in England they were members of the establish- 
ment, and in America members of the denomination to which 
they might please to attach themselves. The ministers were 
called " lay preachers" as they had not been ordained ; and 
as they did not presume to administer the sacraments, but ad- 
vised their members to go elsewhere to receive them, much 
uneasiness was manifest. Mr. Wesley was earnestly solicited 
to ordain ministers for America, but refused to do so, till the 
American revolution had severed all civil and ecclesiastical alle- 
giance to Great Britain. Then the case became widely differ- 
ent, and the exigencies of the times demanded it. The church 
was destitute of the sacraments. The clergy of the church of 
England were very scarce the most of them having fled du- 
ring the revolution, and the few remaining were generally 
thought to be very defective in piety and morals. The Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church was not formed till several years 
afterward, and other denominations mostly Calvinistic were 
unwilling to admit the Methodists to the Lord's table, unless 
they joined their churches ; hence they were driven to the 
point where a separate organization became clearly an im- 
perious duty. But the Scriptures did not forbid it, for by 
them it is certain that bishops and presbyters are of the same 
order, that they originally possessed the same power to ordain, 
and still retain that power ; and the doctrine of the uninter- 
rupted succession of a third order of ministers from the Apos- 
tles is justly discarded by many Episcopalians themselves, as 
being wholly without proof. Air. Wesley, Dr. Coke and 
Mr. Creighton were regularly ordained presbyters of the 
Church of England, the Methodist Churches in the United 
States had been raised up underthe superintendence of Mr. 
Wesley, and he was called of God- to the work of ordaining 
superintendents, and preparing the way for the organization 
of a church in the western world ; in doing which he did not 
interfere with the Church of England, in which he lived and 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 107 

died. As the Scriptures did not forbid tjje Episcopal form of 
government, and as it might be created "and perpetuated by 
presbyterial ordination, and as it was best -adapted to itineran- 
cy, he chose it as being most efficient and best calculated to 
"spread Scriptural holiness over the land." In view of all 
this he set apart Dr. Coke as superintendent, to act in Amer- 
ica, conjointly with Mr. Asbury ; and also ordained Richard 
Whatcoat, and Thomas Vasey as elders, on the 2d day of 
September 1784. These on landing in America called a 
General Conference, which convened on Christmas day, Dec. 
25th, 1784. The preachers then then unanimously elected 
Dr. Coke and Francis Asbury as general superintendents, 
when Mr. Asbury was ordained deacon and elder, and then 
consecrated to the office of superintendent by Dr. Coke, as- 
sisted by several elders. Thus the methodist episcopal 
church was organized, just as the order of God seemed to 
lead the way. * 

Up to 1792 the business of the church had been transacted 
in the annual conferences, and nothing was considered bind- 
ing unless approved by all of them separately. Although the 
Christmas conference of 1784 had been considered a general 
conference, because a general attendance of alb the preachers 
had been invited, yet as the field of labor enlarged, and the 
work increased, and spread in every direction, it was not 
practicable for the preachers to assemble annually in one 
place ; hence they held several conferences in the same year, 
in different parts of the country. But while this accommodated 
both bishops and preachers, one conference could not make 
rules for the rest without the consent of the whole, and these 
independent bodies could not harmonize with each other with- 
out a head or centre of union. 

In view of this a regular General Conference was called, 
which assembled in Baltimore November 1st, 1792, and was 
composed of all the travelling preachers in fiiil connection. 
Dr. Coke presided in conjunction with Bishop Asbury. In 



108 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

1800 it was made a qualification for a member of general con- 
ference to " have travelled four years." General Conferen* 
ces were thus continued quadrennially till in the year 1808 
they resolved to have a delegated General Conference, which 
commenced in New York, May 1st, 1812 ; Bishops Asbury 
and McKendree being present. These delegated general 
conferences thus organized, have continued quadrennially 
ever since, and constitute the supreme judicatory of the 
church. Much of the beauty of Methodism is, the adaptation 
of its several parts to form one complete and perfect whole. 
The reason is this : in its formation when a thing, was neces- 
sary it was adopted, when a church officer was wanted he was 
appointed, and adapted exactly to the place he was to occupy. 
Thus every part fitted : and the vast machinery all moved in 
happy harmony, having a suitable place and plenty of work, 
for every one; from* the bishop to- the feeblest, member. This 
agreement of parts is not seen by examining any one feature ; 
indeed there are objectionable points when isolated and de- 
tached and seen alone ; but, its excellencies appear when 
viewed as a whole, with its extensive powers restrained by 
proper checks, and balances.. The beauty of this constitution 
and polity will be more fully demonstrated, as it is more 
thoroughly examined ; and the better it is understood, and 
the more its practical operations develops themselves, the 
more it will be admired, and the higher it will be prized. But 
what has enabled Methodism to work such a mighty revolu- 
tion in the moral elements of all the Christian world % It is 
the symmetry of its form, the vigor of its operations and. the 
harmony of its movements*- 



CHAPTER XVII. 

OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 

Its Potency. 

Methodism is aggressive. There is no government like it. 
The high claims of the world loudly demanded potency and 
vigor, men were hurrying to death by millions, the whole 
world was lying in wickedness, and Methodism proposed to 
i; spread scriptural holiness'' all over it. It was going to make 
a desperate rush on the wide empire of hell, and its polity 
was peculiarly adapted by our fathers to the exigency. They 
had seen many forms of government, all adapted to the ends 
for which they were designed, they had witnessed the ex- 
ample of Sparta with a strong military government, iron laws, 
strict discipline, with every soldier at his post, and Sparta's 
thunders shook 'the nations. Other administrations have 
sprung up, but their weakness and inefficiency soon consign- 
ed their names and deeds to oblivion. 

The design of Methodism is spiritual conquest : its opera- 
tions are missionary ; its mode of action is itinerant ; and 
these are interwoven into every fibre of its whole texture. — 
The entire system is aggressive, and the field of spiritual con- 
quest is the world. In this important exterprise on the suc- 
cess of which so much depended for time and eternity, the 
government should be adapted to the magnitude and difficulty 
of the work : none should be important actors or officers but 
such as were specially, qualified for the performance of its 
duties ; the interests of religion demand potency, the claims 
of the gospel deserve it ; men should sacrifice self on the 
altar of the common welfare for the public good, — the framers 



110 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

of "the Methodist constitution saw it, and felt it ; and knew 
they could not form a lax government and be innocent : — 
hence, the discipline of the church requires strict subordina- 
tion in all the church officers from the highest to the lowest ; 
and it takes cognizance not only of crimes, but also of all im- 
proper and unofficer-like conduct. 

Now the discipline takes the high and commanding stand, 
that no man should hold a church office without a special fit- 
ness for the fulfilment of its functions, nor unless he is spe- 
cially needed at the time he holds it. We here make the dis- 
tinction between office and order, Thus a bishop as an 
officer is amenable to the General Conference, and by it he 
may be removed from his high office without having a crime 
proved or even alledged against him. For any impropriety 
which impairs his usefulness or is unbecoming a bishop, he 
may be deposed. The church need not wait, and suffer, and 
bleed, till the bishop becomes a criminal, before he can be re- 
moved. There is too much at stake. Interests high as heav- 
en are involved, interests which reach onward forever ; and 
one had better suffer than that the whole church be harmed. 
It is enough that he is not a suitable man for a bishop. But 
the church will infer that thev need him after thev have 
elected and ordained him, unless there is impropriety in his 
conduct, and like Aaron and Hur, they will stay up his 
hands. . 

The presiding elder who becomes unprofitable on the dis- 
trict may be removed from that responsible office by the bish- 
op to a circuit, and have a preacher in charge placed over 
him, if need be, and that too without having a crime proved 
or charge preferred against him. n The district is not always 
obliged to suffer four years by the mismanagement of an un- 
suitable man for that office; . 

The itinerant preacher in charge who is not acceptable as 
such, may be displaced from his office, and made an assistant, 
md that too without any accusation. brought against him, or if- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT. Ill 

Ire become unacceptable as a travelling preacher, the confer- 
ence may locate- him without his consent. 

When local preachers or exhorters become unprofitable, 
without a shade of criminality, the quarterly conference may 
refuse to renew their licenses ; or if the class leaders are not 
suitable, the preacher in charge whose assistants they are, can 
remove them, without trial or complaint against them. 

This does not apply to men in orders being deposed from 
the ministry, nor to members of the church who all have a 
right to a fair trial, and an appeal, but only to church officers 
as such ; and why this summary mode of removal from those 
offices, without trial or sentence or condemnation ? The 
great answer is this : because the high and paramount 

INTERESTS OF THE CHURCH OF GOD DEMAND IT. TJllS Ollf- 

weighs all other considerations. The more summary the 
operation, and the less popular commotion the better for the 
great whole. The welfare of the church requires that su- 
preme independent authority shall be exercised at some points 
without control ; shackle it there, and its efficiency is gone, 
its glory departed If the church must wait till they can 
prove their officers guilty of crimes before they can remove 
them, they will long remain as dead weights, for few would 
ever be removed. The blessed church of God, deeply 
freighted with its myriads of priceless souls, carrying her 
rich cargo over the sea of time, should not be left to suffer for 
years by the mismanagement of unsuitable men as comman- 
ders. 

But why has the deposed officer no appeal % Because it 
would be difficult to prove that one man would not be as effi- 
cient as another, both being good brethren ; and because the 
process, would engender controversy, it would be liable to 
fill the whole church with strife and contention, and destroy 
its efficiency. 

This polity is based on the mutual surrender of personal 
rights for thcsake.of.the general good of the whole* church \ 



112 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

and this system of self sacrifice pervades the whole economy, 
bearing the most heavily on the ministry. 

Does the class leader complain that the preacher can re- 
move him without trial, let him know that the minister who 
has this power, is subject to be removed in his turn by the 
presiding elder, without complaint ; and the presiding elder 
who can so summarily remove a preacher may himself be re- 
moved without crime by the bishop : and the bishop who can 
remove the presiding elder, without charging him with crime, 
may himself be removed in the same way by the general con- 
ference ; and each can be displaced for any indiscretion in 
the exercise of his prerogatives in removing others. 

But all these removals must be made within constitutional 
restrictions which limit the powers of all the officers and guide 
them at equal distances between anarchy and despotism, and 
an abuse of power as well as a delinquency may be corrected 
by bringing the officer before the tribunal to which he is re- 
sponsible for his official conduct. 

Thus all the extensive powers of church officers are suita- 
bly balanced by appropriate checks, and the whole complex 
plan works in harmony. It is a vast system of well wrought 
machinery, of wheels within wheels, each in its place, and 
revolving with potency and without collision. The general 
conference embraces the whole church in one grand quadren- 
nial revolution ; within this are the annual conferences trav- 
• ersed by bishops, and revolving yearh" ; in each of these 
there are presiding elders districts which revolve quarterly, 
and they again embrace circuits traversed by preachers and 
holding monthly or more frequent leaders meetings ; and yet 
these are divided into classes, examined weekly by the lea- 
ders. These are all moving in unclashing harmony ; and in 
regularity may be likened to a system of suns and planets 
and asteroids and secondaries, each in its place and acting 
its part in dispensing light and heat and comfort to all the 
world. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 113 

The reasons why these extensive powers should be thus 
granted are given and clearly demonstrated in the subsequent 
chapters of this work. 

This system of accountability of subordinate officers to their 
superiors, connected with its power of keeping every thing 
in motion, imparts potency and life and strength to Metho- 
dism ; it arms it with its peculiar power to combat the force 
of earth and hell ; it renders it mighty in success in bring- 
ing in the thoughtless multitudes that throng the road to ruin ; 
and the results of its vigorous and enterprising operations 
stand forth in striking colors before the world. 



CHAPTER XVIIL 

OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Its Purity. 

Methodism is unalterable. When it recedes from its high 
originality it is not Methodism. . It has remained pure, and 
stood precisely the same from the first, both in doctrine, and 
in all the essentials of discipline. It has steadily and perse- 
veringly opposed the use- of spirituous liquors as a beverage, 
from the beginning ; and has always recognized slavery as a 
"• great evil :" but above all its great and paramount design 
has been, " to spread Scriptural holiness over the land ;" and 
being missionary in its structure, and vigorous in its opera- 
tions, it has wonderfully accomplished that design. 

Frequent efforts have been made by ecclesiastical dema- 
gogues to destroy the efficiency of Methodism, to bring it en- 
tirely under the control of popular influence, and subject it to 
the management of ambitious men ; but against all this array 
of exertion it has nobly stood, and still stands, in its original 
symmetry and beauty, pure as the light. 

Three principal secessions to effect revolutions of that kind 
might be noticed, . 

The first was in 1792, under the Rev. James O' Kelly, a 
popular preacher in Virginia. It was conducted with consid- 
erable acrimony by Mr. O'Kelly, but the church was ably vin- 
dicated by the- Rev. Nicholas Snethen. This outbreak was 
mostly confined to Virginia, and the northern part of North 
Carolina, and soon spent its force, and all the travelling preach- 
ers but one returned to the church. . The spirit of insubordi- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 115 

nation and misrule were however manifest for several 
years. 

Passing over the secession gotten up by Mr. Stilwell which 
was mostly confined to the city of New York, and its vicinity 
and perished with its author ; we come now to the considera- 
tion of the second secession which commenced in 1827, in 
which the above named Mr. Snethen, then located and residing 
near Baltimore took an active part against the church. He 
published severe strictures against its government in periodi- 
cals entitled the " Wesleyan Repository" and "Mutual 
Rights." These strictures were : ably answered by Dr. Thom- 
as E. Bond of Baltimore, in a pamphlet entitled an " Appeal 
to the Methodists in opposition to the changes proposed in 
their church government." 

Soon after the establishment of the " Mutual Rights" a pe- 
riodical was started in Baltimore, call the " Itinerant;" edited' 
by the late Rev. Melville B. Cox, in which the friends of the 
church were enabled to expose the fallacies of the professed re- 
formers, to refute their allegations, and to vindicate their own 
energetic form of government. 

About the same time a pamphlet was issued by the Rev. 
Alexander McCain of Virginia, entitled " History and Mys- 
tery of Methodist Episcopacy" attempting to prove that the 
Episcopacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church was gotten up 
without the knowledge of Mr. Wesley, and against his wishes ; 
thus impeaching the honesty of the first bishops of the church. 
This work brought forth the timely production of the Rev. 
John Emory, then one of the book agents. It was entitled 
"A Defence of our Fathers," and was a complete refutation 
of the groundless assumptions of Mr. McCaine's " History and 
Mystery." 

To effect a total disruption of the church " Union Societies" 
had been formed in many parts of the country, and the leaders 
in this enterprise had become much excited, and had indulged 
in severe censures against the church, when in the exercise of 



116 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

wholesome discipline, it had sometimes been found necessary 
to expel them. Those who had been expelled in Baltimore 
formed themselves into a society entitled " Associate Metho- 
dist Reformers," who prepared and presented a memorial to 
the General Conference. This being referred to a committee, 
a report, drawn up by Dr. Emory, was unanimously adopted. 
This able document came with arguments overwhelming, ir- 
resistible and unanswerable. It put the pamphleteers to flight, 
exposed the pretensions of the "Reformers," and brought to 
light their efforts to relax the the rules of discipline,' to destroy 
the potency of the church polity, and scatter its energies to 
the winds. It exposed their pretensions that the people desired 
a change in the government, which they, coming as they did 
from every part of the country knew to be otherwise. This 
able report, originating as it did with the highest judicatory 
of the church, armed the membership with weapons of de- 
fence, and cemented their hearts in the bonds of indissoluble 
co-operation. From all the destructive innovations and dis- 
organizations of these " Reformers" the Methodist Episcopal 
Church still remains pure. 

The Rev. Asa Shinn of the Pittsburgh Conference took an 
active part with Mr. Snethen in this transaction ; but the num- 
bers who actually seceded were perhaps never very accurately 
ascertained, as it was thought there was not sufficient system 
in their operations to afford satisfactory statistics. 

The followers of Mr. O'Kelly called themselves " Repub- 
lican Methodists" but the fruits of that secession have long 
since entirely disappeared, except as they are inscribed upon 
the tablets of eternity. The other seceders above mentioned 
styled themselves u Associated Methodist Reformers" and 
subsequently " Protestant Methodists" but as they have not 
succeeded according to their expectations, and have become 
partially extinct except in some isolated societies, and as their 
principal editor and minister the Rev. Mr. Stockton has finally 
withdrawn from them, we leave them by observing, first: 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 117 

That no church can erect itself and stand permanently by 
merely reproaching their neighbors, that they need something 
more than censure to render them stable ; secondly : That it 
was always to difficult for them to expel the incorrigible from 
their communion, their polity being modeled to favor that por- 
tion of their members who had been expelled from other 
churches ; and lastly ; That there never wassufficient strength 
in their government to sustain itself, for where a polity is so 
liberal that all the members may do about as they please, with 
impunity it cannot long sustain a successful organization. 

We come now to the consideration of the third secession, 
which was accomplished in 1842, under the auspices of Rev. 
Orange Scott, Rev. Jotham Horton, and others. Although 
in this chapter we might say much directly of the equity and 
purity of the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and shew conclusively, that it has retained its pure Wesley an 
Methodism, and that its government has remained unadultera- 
ted, just as it was organized by Mr. Wesley, and transmitted 
to us ; yet that will be reserved for the subsequent chapters 
of this work. We shall now proceed to mark the contrast 
between " True Wesleyanism" in fact, and that form of polity 
instituted by the seceders of 1842 ; and shew that in the or- 
ganization of their economy they have concocted a kind of 
spurious government, amalgamating Methodist itinerancy with 
a very large portion of Congregationalism, forming a kind of 
polity very different from that of Mr. Wesley, amounting 
not merely to a modification, but to a radical change. 

In the consideration of this subject we shall not attempt, in 
this chapter, to shew which is most scriptural, neither what is 
most practicable, but merely what Mr. Wesley taught ; which 
will exhibit the contrast between the two dissimilar forms, and 
shew that the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is Wesleyanism in its original puiit}^ We use the discipline 
published by themselves in 1843. 

I. They have made a great change in the structure of 

THE GOVERNMENT. 



J 18 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

• 

1. In admitting lay delegation. This is anti Wesleyan, and 

•they would doubtless acknowledge it " if they would testify." 

2. They have so arranged their rules that " all elders sta- 
tioned and unstationed shall be eligible to membership in the 
General Conference." Thus the members of that body might 
be composed of local men, either preachers or laymen, with 
local predilections, local views, and local interests ; shewing 
that they are dissatisfied with the itinerant system, and are 
willing thus to sacrifice it on the altar of local influence. This 
is exactly at antipodes with the views of Mr, Wesley. 

3. They have departed from the original in having a station- 
ing committee to fix the appointments of the preachers. — 
"While Mr. Wesley lived he performed that responsible work 
in England, and before he died he recommended a plan by 
which they might be appointed in America, and ordained Dr. 
Coke for that very purpose. In Great Britain where they 
have a church and state establishment they have bishops 
by law, and of course no Methodist bishops, but presidents of 
conferences ; but in America where Mr. Wesley could have 
a form of government unshackled by state interference, he- 
appointed and ordained superintendents for life, to station 
preachers, and that this office should be perpetual he prepared 
a form of ordination for superintendents, to be used in all 
future time. 

4. Thus contrary to Mr. Wesley's views they electa presi- 
dent annually, necessarily bringing in all the evils of caucus- 
ing which will inevitably ensue. 

II. Another class of innovations may be found in the trial 

OF MEMBERS. 

5. They may have a judicial committee of at least six 
persons who shall remain in office one year which " shall be a 
standing court to try all charges or accusations that may be 
brought before it." This is a species of Congregationalism, 
but never was Methodism. 

6. With them the charges shall be "in writing," but Mr. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 119 

Wesley simply said " let the accused and the accuser be brought 
face to face," and this gives the unlettered poor an equal 
chance with the rich. 

7. The accused have the privilege of choosing whether they 
will be tried by the entire church or by a committee, which is 
contrary to real Wesleyanism, and besides that, if tried by the 
whole church they can have no appeal, a privilege guarantied 
to all the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church under 
all circumstances. 

8. Female committees shall be allowed to sit on the trial of 
female members if requested by the accused. This is not of 
Mr. Wesley. 

III. But the greater class of innovations refers to the gen- 
eral extension of privilege. It appears like an effort to 
accommodate the whole itinerant system to the vanity of aspi- 
rants for place, and is accomplished by surrendering the 
efficiency of Methodism to their imperious demands. This 
becomes apparent in view of the following considerations. 

9. Every preacher and every layman have the privilege of 
objecting to the appointments, and of an appeal to the confer- 
ence from the report of the stationing committee. This is 
entirely anti Methodism, is rightly calculated to produce con- 
fusion, and subvert the whole itinerant svstem. 

10. It is the right of the president of conference "in the 
intervals of conference to employ and change preachers with 
the consent of the churches and preachers." What a mighty 
prerogative ! And who does not possess the same ? . But if 
one of the preachers or one of the churches do not consent 
his powers are at an end. This is not Methodism, nor in ac- 
cordance with the itinerant system by which individuals sur- 
render up their own will for the good of the whole. 

11. With them there is no restriction of salaries. Let each 
one get what he can and keep it. This is a wide departure 
from the original, for from the first the strong preachers have 
divided with the weak. 



120 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

12. They have elders but not deacons. This is Congre- 
gationalism, and directly contrary to the views of Mi*. Wesley 
who prepared a form for the ordination of deacons as well as 
elders. 

13. Their preachers may stay three years in one place, but 
originally they changed every three or six months, for in 
1774 the minutes read, "all the preachers to change at the 
end of six months," and as late as 1794, they read " The 
bishop and conferences desire that the preachers would gen- 
erally change every six months, by the order of the presiding 
elder, whenever it can be made convenient." But they say 
the Wesleyan Methodists in England stay three years on one 
charge, and we answer : they have no stations in that coun- 
try, not even in the cities, but circuits, where the preaching 
of each minister in the same place is less frequent, and a 
stationed preacher here doubtless preaches more to the same 
congregation in one year than they do in two ; hence, their 
stay of three years is equal to six in England. 

14. They have no supernumerary preachers. This is not 
in accordance with Mr. Wesley. See his works vol. 5, pp. 
231. 

15. Elders tried and expelled by an annual conference 
have no appeal. 

16. They inquire, " Who are on the unstationed list this 
year ?-" This is novel in Methodism. 

17. Class leaders have the privilege of admitting serious 
persons, not members, to their class at their own discretion. 
This is at antipodes with Mr. Wesley. 

18. They are required to see each person in their class- 
once a week " if practicable.'''' This is opening the gate, and 
leaving it open. 

19. They are "to receive what they are willing to give 
toward the support of the preachers ;" to which Methodism 
adds " church and poor." In this new organization the 
" church and poor" must look out for themselves. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 121 

20. These class leaders are to be elected by the classes. 
This is directly opposed to Wesleyan Methodism. See his 
letter to Mr. John Mason dated Jan 13, 1790, where he says 
it shall not be so "as long as I live;" He adds, " we have 
not and never had any such custom." Also, see the reasons 
against it in Chap. XXIII of this work. 

21. These " elections shall take place annually, and oftener 
if necessary." This is an entire departure from the " pat- 
tern given in the mount." 

22. Trustees who are members of their church "shall be 
members of the quarterly meeting conference." This is an- 
other innovation. 

23. " The stewards shall be elected by the church or quar* 
terly meeting conference ;" they do not exactly seem to know 
which, probably those who happen to get into the spirit of it 
first, and take the work in hand, but where they lack in cer- 
tainty they make up in numbers. Is this true Wesleyanism $ 

24. The quarterly conference "shall choose its own presi- 
dent," but this was not taught by Mr. Wesley. 

25. They may admit to lovefeast " at the discretion of the 
pastor." This is an utter departure from the " old paths." 

28. Those who have the charge of circuits are "to read the 
rules of the> connection with the aid of the other preachers 
once a year in every congregation," to which Mr. Wesley 
adds, " and once a quarter in every society." 

27. They have shortened the probation of members from 
six to three months. 

This list of innovations tending to laxness in discipline 
might be continued to a great length, but we forbear ; and 
ask : did they believe that such a relaxation of ecclesiastical 
order was for the well being of the church,, and for the glory 
of God % And did they believe that it is necessary in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church ? Or was it made to disaffect 
members of established churches, and to disorganize them, to 
gratify modern reformers and comeouters, and to bring anar- 



122 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

chy and liberalism into the churches. Whatever gives 
strength and force and stability to Methodism is abandoned ; 
any thing to accommodate the public, and increase their num- 
bers. It is not a mere modification of Methodism, but so rad- 
ical a change to Congregationalism as will necessarily amount 
to an abandonment of the itinerant system. The demands of 
the ultra reformers have been such as to deprive them not only 
of all that is vital to the system, but to the very existence of 
Methodism. 

hi view of the above considerations we learn as follows : — 

1. That contrasted with this amalgam we see the beauty 
and glory of real Methodism. Amid all the convulsions of 
disorganizers, and the efforts of schismatics, the Methodist 
Episcopal Church has out rode the storm and remained pure. 

2. We learn that it is easier to find fault with this govern- 
ment, and rail against it as tyrannical, than to form a better 
one. 

3. Till we can find a purer and better form of polity we 
should learn to sustain the church as it is. 

The government of the Methodist Episcopal Church is best 
understood by dissecting and analyzing its several parts, and 
we shall now proceed in the succeeding chapters, to examine 
each division separately. It will be found to be a regular and 
systematic combination of the three principal forms of church 
government, viz, Episcopal, Presbyterial and Congregational, 
for as it requires the blending of the three fundamental forms 
of civil polity, viz, Monarchy, Aristocracy and Democracy, 
to form a Republic ; so the combination of the three principal 
forms of church polity applied to itinerancy and working in 
harmony, constitutes Methodism. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



OF THE EPISCOPACY OF METHODISM. 

The Episcopal polity in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
originated entirely with Mr. Wesley. He says : u I believe 
the Episcopal form of church government to be scriptural and 
apostolical." But while he considered it thus scriptural he 
did not think it therein prescribed, either that or any other 
form, or that the episcopacy is a distinct order from presbyters 
but an office in that order ; and he believed that it was expe- 
dient for the good government of the church to have some of 
that order ordained to the Episcopal office, and invested solely 
with powers which originally belonged to the whole order. 

The principal point in controversy between the friends mid 
opposers of the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
arises from the assertion of the latter, that •" our Episcopacy 
in particular was established in defiance of the expressed 
wishes of Mr. Wesley." The settlement of this question 
then will be the subject of this chapter. 

In proof of their statement they quote a letter from Mr. 
Wesley to Bishop Asbury, very strongly protesting against 
his being "called a bishop." In answer to this the friends 
of the church assert and clearly prove that it was the name 
of bishop, and not the episcopal office to which Mr. Wesley 
was opposed ; and we now propose to lay before the reader a 
summary of the proof. 

Before entering directly on a consideration of the testimony 
we would premise, that Mr. Asbury was the first general as- 
sistant in the American Colonies, that Mr. Rankin came from 



124 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

England, and being older in the ministry than Mr. Asbury, 
he superseded him in that office, by the appointment of Mr. 
Wesley ; that there was a subsequent jealousy existing be- 
tween Mr. Rankin and Mr. Asbury ; that at the commence- 
ment of the American Revolution Mr. Rankin, being a deci- 
ded tory, returned to England, and then and there represented 
Mr. Asbury to Mr. Wesley in a light not the most favorable ; 
hence Mr. Wesley was inclined to' construe every apparent 
reach at distinction in Mr. Asbury in its worst light, and wrote 
the above named letter under those impressions. 

We 1 now proceed to consider the reasons why we' ar& as- 
sured that Mr. Wesley was in favor of the Episcopal form' of 
church government. 

I.. Because he lived and died in the- English Church, one 
of the prominent features of which is Episcopacy ; and to that 
form of the Episcopacy he gave constant evidence of attach- 
ment. But while- he believed' in episcopacy, he also believed 
that it could be created by presbyterial ordination. 

2. When Mr. Wesley ordained Dr. Coke to the Episcopal 
office, he observed, that the Methodists in America desired 
u still to adhere to the doctrine and discipline of the church of 
England." 

3. After he had consecrated Dr. Coke he expressly used 
the word " ordaining" in his circular letter on the subject, 
without intimating that he used it in a subordinate sense. 

4. When Mr. Wesley proposed to ordain Dr. Coke why 
was the Dr. startled, and why did he doubt Mr. Wesley's 
authority, and why did Mr. Wesley recommend him to read 
Lord Kings Primitive Church, which proves to a demonstra- 
tion the right of presbyters to ordain even a bishop, and speaks 
of the Alexandrian Church where " on the decease of the 
bishop the presbyters ordained his successor 1 And why did 
he give him time to reflect, and why finally ordain him, with 
solemn forms and the imposition of the hands of Mr. Wesley, 
assisted by other regular presbyters of the English Church ? 



EPISCOPACY OF METHODISM. 125 

o. Were this ordination anything below its true ecclesiasti- 
cal application why did Mr. Wesley attach so much importance 
to it ? In his circular letter on Dr. Coke's appointment he 
says ; "For many years I have been importuned from time to 
time to exercise this right by ordaining part of our travelling 
preachers, but I have still refused, not only for peace sake, 
but because I was determined as little as possible to violate 
the established order of the national church to which I belonged. 
But the case is widely different between England and America. 
Here there are bishops who have a legal jurisdiction. In Ame- 
rica there are none, neither any parish ministers. So that for 
some hundred miles together there are none either to baptize 
or administer the sacrament. Here, therefore my scruples 
are at an end !" 

6. Why ordain him at all if it were not to the episcopal 
office ? They did not ordain their general assistants, and Dr. 
Coke had been many years a presb}^ter. Why ordain him 
again % Let modern " reformers," in all fairness, stop and 
answer these questions. 

7. The conference in Baltimore at which the church was 
organized commenced on the 25th day of December 1784, 
and terminated January 1st, 1785. When Dr. Coke publish- 
ed the minutes they were entitled, " General Minutes of the 
Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America," 
and they expressly declared that at the "recommendation" of 
Mr. Wesley we were formed into an Episcopal Church. 
These proceedings were examined by Mr. Wesley the next 
June, and in July he was with Dr. Coke at the British Con- 
ference, and the minutes themselves were printed under the 
superintendence of Mr. Wesley, and on the press which he 
used ; and we hear from him no remonstrance. And after 
the minutes were published, and the facts developed, the Dr. 
was editorially attacked and he responded through the press, 
that " he had done nothing but under the direction of Mr. 
Wesley," which assertion Mr. Wesley never denied ; but re- 



126 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

tained his confidence in Dr. Coke to the end of his life. This 
all fully demonstrates that Mr. Wesley originated, and favored 
Methodist episcopacy. 

8. For about three years after the organization of the church 
it was called an " episcopal church" and the minutes expressly 
stated that " following the counsel of Mr. John Wesley, who 
recommended the episcopal mode of church government, we 
thought it best to become an episcopal church" which shews 
that the episcopacy was established by his direction ; but when 
the appellation of "bishop" four years after the organization 
was applied to the superintendents, Mr. Wesley wrote the 
letter objecting to their being " called a bishop," shewing that 
while he approved and defended the office, he disapproved the 
name. 

9. It is also clearly obvious that he : designed, the perpetuity 
of the office, for in the prayer book which he then abridged 
from the forms in the English Liturgy for the American 
churches, he inserted forms for the ordination of Deacons, 
Elders and Superintendents ; corresponding with Deacons, 
Presbyters and Bishops in the church of England : and directs 
that all who are elected to either office should be presented to 
the superintendent to be ordained. Now if he was opposed 
to Methodist Episcopacy, why did he thus provide to render 
it perpetual ; why did he recognize three offices in the min- 
istry, why apply the word ordain, and why by superinten- 
dents only ? 

10. While John Wesley wished the appellation of super- 
intendents applied to the incumbents of the Episcopal office, 
his brother Charles called them bishops. In his letter to Dr. 
Chandler he speaks of his brother's having " assumed the 
episcopal character, ordained elders, consecrated a bishop, and 
sent him to ordain our lay preachers in America." This 
shews what the office was understood to be in fact. 

11. When Mr. Wesley ordained Dr. Coke in Bristol, his 
brother Charles was in the city ; but he beine; a -high church- 



EPISCOPACY OF METHODISM. 127 

man was opposed to ordination except in the established order, 
by a bishop ; so that Mr. Wesley sent away to London for 
help in ordination, though Charles was a presbyter in the 
Church of England. This proves that he did ordain in the 
strict ecclesiastical sense, else why take so much precaution 
against his brothers high church predilections. But it has been 
objected that Charles was as much opposed to his brother's 
ordaining for the lower offices as for that of a bishop, and 
that these ordinations were of the latter class ; but how could 
that be when Dr. Coke had been ordained a presbyter for 
years by a bishop of the establishment, and had exercised 
that office ? 

12. It is obvious that Charles Wesley understood that Dr. 
Coke had received episcopal powers, for he now writes with 
gueat concern that, "not a preacher in London would refuse 
orders from the Dr." He knew that they could not accept 
it from the bishops of the established church, and fears that 
they would ask, and receive it, at the hands of Dr. Coke. 

13. Again he says of Dr. Coke to his brother ; " He comes 
armed with your authority to make us all dissenters ;" but 
how could he be armed with Mr. Wesley's authority unless 
ordained by him to a higher office, as he had been for years 
a presbyter of the establishment ? 

14. When Dr. Coke was ordained to the office of superinten- 
dent, Messrs. Whatcoat and Vasey were ordained elders ; and 
as no religious denomination claims more than three orders 
in the ministry, deacons, elders or presbyters, and bishops or 
superintendents : we ask to what office was the Dr. ordained 
if not to the next higher, as he had so long been a presbyter ; 
and what did Mr. Wesley mean when he said, in his circular 
letter to the American church, that Dr. Coke and Mr. Asbury 
were " to be joint superintendents over them," and Mr. What- 
coat and Vasey were " to act as elders among them V 3 

15. Dr. Adam Clarke and Rev. Richard Watson both be- - 
lieved that the episcopacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church a 






128 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 



originated with Mr. Wesley, and was genuine and legitimate 
episcopacy. When Dr. Emory was a delegate to the British 
conference in 1820, he heard the opinions of these eminent 
divines expressed in open conference ; and they represented 
it as "a true, actual, scriptural episcopacy, of the most genu- 
ine and apostolical character." 

16. The biographers of the Wesleys agree in acknowledg- 
ing the legitimacy of the episcopacy of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. Mr. Moore, in his life of Wesley acknowled- 
ges and argues at length that Mr. Wesley instituted it, and 
had a right to do so. He says, " That our brethren who are 
in that office are true scriptural bishops I have no doubt nor 
do I wish that the title should be relinquished." " He (Mr. 
Wesley) gave to those episcopal (bishops) whom he ordained, 
the modest title of superintendents." Dr. Dixson, ex-pre$i- 
dent of the Wesleyan conference in England, in his work on 
" Methodism" says : " It is to the American Methodist Epis- 
copal Church that we are to look for the real mind and sen- 
timents of this great man." Mr. Watson in his life of Wes- 
ley, and Mr. Jackson in his life of Charles Wesley, both en- 
tertain and confirm the same views. 

IT. The Wesleyan Methodist Church in England acknowl- 
edge the validity of the episcopacy of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. The official organ of that church, the English 
Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for 1825, pp. 183, says, — 
" Whether the name had or had not the sanction of Mr. Wes- 
ley is now of the least possible consequence, as the episco- 
pacy itself was of his creating." 

Now, under these circumstances, what should we think of 
a class of professed reformers, who should put as a motto in a 
conspicuous place on their standard periodical, what would in- 
fer that Mr. Wesley was opposed to the episcopacy of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, when they knew all the facts in 
the case, and that it is not so % Can we consider it in accord- 
ance with strict christian integrity ? And when interrogated, 



EPISCOPACY OP METHODISM. 129 

should they say, " we give it just as Mr. Wesley wrote it," 
" we did not intend to make any remarks upon it ;" should we 
consider them strictly honest, when we knew that it was in- 
serted in their periodical on purpose to misrepresent the fact? 
in the case, and to deceive the public ? 

9 



CHAPTER XX. 

TOWER OP BISHOPS IN THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The prerogatives of bishops are clearly denned by the dis- 
cipline. Unlike the bishops under church and state estab- 
lishments, they have no power but what is expressly delegated 
for special purposes. Perhaps there has been more misin- 
formation in relation to the power of the episcopacy of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, than on any, point in all the range 
of ecclesiastical polity. Prerogatives which they never had, or 
desired, have been gratuitously alledged to belong to them ; 
and then, they have been held up before the public as ecclesi- 
astical tyrants. It has frequently been asserted that the bishops 
own the book concern, and all the churches and parsonages 
in the United States. The writer of this work has heard a 
Rev. ultra "reformer" state to his congregation, that the 
bishops own all the Methodist church property in the land, 
and that to his certain knowledge the bishops would be riding 
through the country, and when they were out of spending 
money, they would stop and sell a meeting house, and put, the 
money into their pockets, and the members of the church dare 
not oppose it, nor say a word about it. tie held them up as 
ecclesiastical despots, deserving of public execration, and clos- 
ed by asserting that episcopal Methodism was worse than Po- 
pery. Now these assertions carry their antidote with them, 
especially where it is so well known that the churches and 
parsonages are all deeded to the trustees, who are elected by 
ballot in the societies, and in their official capacity are entire- 
ly independent of the bishops. Not a cent of money belong- 
ing to the. church is at the disposal of the episcopacy. 



POWER OF METHODIST EPISCOPAL BISHOPS. 131 

I: We propose in all candor to consider these celebrated 
episcopal prerogatives. They are as follows : 

1. "To preside in our conferences."' 

2. "To fix the appointments of the preachers" subject to 
various restrictions as to the time they may remain in the 
same station, etc. 

3. " In the intervals of the conferences to change, receive, 
and suspend preachers, as necessity may require, and as the 
discipline directs." 

4. "To travel through the connection at large." 

5. "To oversee the spiritual and temporal business of our 
church." 

6. "To ordain bishops, elders, and deacons," subject to 
an election by an annual conference. 

7. " To decide all questions of law in an annual confer- 
ence, subject to an appeal to the General Conference ; but in 
all cases the application of law shall be with the conference." 

8. " The bishops may, when they judge it necessary, 
unite two or more circuits or stations together, without effect 
ing their separate financial interests, or pastoral duties." 

These are the " almost unlimited" powers guarantied to 
the episcopacy by the discipline, beyond which they cannot 
pass ; and when candidly examined they are found to be no 
more extensive than is strictly necessary for the good govern- 
ment of the church.- The powers of the episcopacy have been 
abridged since the organization of the church in 1784. Then 
no person could be ordained elder or deacon without the con- 
sent of the bishop as well as a majority of the conference ; 
and it was the province of the superintendent " To receive 
appeals from the preachers and people, and decide them." A 
rule for the preachers also said : " Print nothing without the 
approbation of one or other of the superintendents." Thus 
these celebrated and " growing powers," have decreased since 
the church was organized. 

II. Let us now come to a. consideration of their disabilities, 



132 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

which will develop the balance of power which pervades all 
the parts of the Methodist economy. 

1. They are amenable to the general conference who 
have power to expel them for improper conduct, if they see 
it necessary. The discipline does not require that they shall 
be tried in conformity with any legal usage or established pre- 
cedent. They are not guarantied a fair trial, or any trial at 
all. The general conference may originate their own pro- 
ceedings in every particular case ; and they have no authority 
to establish any particular form of trial which would be obli- 
gatory, on a subsequent general conference, as that would pos- 
sess equal authority with themselves. 

2. In the general conference to which they are amenable 
they can have no vote. They can have no share in making 
the rules by which they themselves are governed. This right 
they possesed either in themselves, or bj/ their representatives 
before they were raised to the episcopal office. 

3. They can be arraigned for the first impropriety, with- 
out the priviledge of previous labor. 

4. The rule in their case takes cognizance not only of 
crimes, but also of "improper conduct," and the general con- 
ference are to judge what conduct is improper, and they might 
pronounce that improper in a bishop which might not be call- 
ed so in an elder. 

5. They have no appeal ; but all other officers and mem- 
bers have this guarantied to them by the constitution of the 
church. 

6. They are liable to be tried by a tribunal lower than an 
anual conference, even by a committee of nine, for any sup- 
posed immorality ; and may be suspended by two thirds of 
them, not only from their offices, but from membership in 
the church, till the ensuing general conference. 

7. Their allowance for support is no higher than that of 
any other minister or preacher in the church. 

8. "If they cease from travelling without the consent of 



POWER OP METHODIST EPISCOPAL BISHPOS. 133 

the general conference, they shall not thereafter exercise the 
episcopal office in our church." 

Thus we see their powers connected with their disabilities, 
and in this connection we perceive a very " moderate episco- 
pacy." If the Methodist economy presses with rigor upon 
any class of men, it is the bishops ; for they have an increase 
of responsibilities, labors, anxieties and cares, without an in- 
crease of compensation. Their power, which is not for their 
own aggrandizement, but for the good of the church, is not 
an equivalent for the increase of sacrifice ; and yet there 
are insurrectionary disaffected ultraists, who ungenerously, 
unjustly and constantly misrepresent them, and their powers 
before the public, yet their record is on high, and the last final 
issue will declare it. 



CHAPTER XXL 



NECESSITY OF BISHOPS IN THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

• 

Methodism does not assert that diocesan episcopacy is neces- 
sary or unnecssary it leaves that with those who prefer that 
form of government, or otherwise ; neither is it based on any 
aliedged apostolic succession, for it repudiates that doctrine : 
but on the necessity of the case. This polity is predicated on 
the three following facts : 

I. That itinerancy is scriptural. 

IT. That itinerancy is expedient. 

III. That itinerancy obtaining, BISHOPS ARE 
NEEDFUL. 

I. The evidence that itinerarcy is scriptural may be 
•briefly summed up as follows : 

1. Our Lord Jesus Christ set the example, He spent 
the three years of his ministerial or official life in the itiner- 
ancy, in travelling and preaching, or in the language of Peter, 
Acts 10. 38 He " went about doing good." 

2. The instructions of our Lord to his apostles shew that 
the itinerant plan for the propagation of the gospel is the true 
scriptural method. Mark 16. 15, " Go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel to every creature." Matt. 10, 5, 6, 7, 
" These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them, saying. 
Go — to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go 
preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt. 22, 
8, 9, " Then said he to his servants. The wedding is ready, but 
they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore, 
into the highways, and as many as ye shall find bid to the mar- 



NECESSITY OF METHODIST EPISCOPAL BISHOPS. 135 

riage," Matt. 28, 19, " Go ye, therefore, and teach all na- 
tions." Mark 6, 7, 8, " And he called unto him the twelve, and 
began to send them forth by two and two, and commanded them 
that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff 
only." Luke 10. 1, " After these things, the Lord appointed 
other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face 
into every city and place whither he himself would come." 
Luke 14. 23, " And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out 
into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, 
that my house may be filled." 

3. That the itinerant plan is scriptural is obvious from the 
fact that the apostles obeyed the injunctions of their Lord, and 
acted on the itinerant system. Matt, 22, 10. " So those ser- 
vants went out into the highways and gathered together" etc. 
Acts 8, 4. " Therefore they that were scattered abroad went 
everv where preaching the word." ver. 40 "But Philip was 
found at Azotus : and passing through, he preached in all the 
cities, till he came to Cesarea." Acts 15. 36, " Paul said un- 
to Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every 
city where we have preached the word of the Lord." These 
quotations are sufficient to prove that the itinerant system is 
the true, primitive, apostolical, New Testament plan of opera- 
tion in the church of God. 

II. Itinerancy is expedient. 

1. Because it is always safest and best to follow the primi- 
tive scriptural and apostolical system, according to the pattern 
given in the mount. 

2. It gives to the ministry a kind of holy independence in 
warning the people, and denouncing sin, which will cause re- 
formation or offense, without the fear of being dismissed as the 
consequence. 

3. It is a system of such self-sacrifice as almost entirely to 
preclude ministers of false character, who feel no deep and 
abiding interest in the cause of God. 

4. Itinerancy harmonizes best with the great design contem- 



136 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

plated in the Christian ministry, which goes forth to the con- 
quest of the world. Our Lord requires that the gospel shall 
be aggressive, till it is universal. 

5. It is best calculated to disseminate all the variously diver- 
sified talents of a numerous and vigorous ministry, all over 
the land. 

6. The itinerant system is wisely adapted to develope the 
moral and physical powers of the Christian soldier. This he- 
roic training and constant exercise, produces vigorous frames, 
and energetic temperaments, while the constant exertion of 
the mind gives it point and force. 

7. It is a strong ligament of ecclesiastical union.. It ren- 
ders the ministry the common property of the whole church, 
in which each member has a common interest ; also every 
preacher has a corresponding and reciprocal concern for all the 
societies. Unlike those of any other denomination every 
member can say, " All things are ours ; whether Paul, or 
Apollos, or Cephas." As it tends to preserve a sameness of 
feeling in the whole body, by having the same ministers cir- 
culate through the connection, it creates a state of things simi- 
lar to that of the primitive church as described by Tertullian ; 
"We are all one body" says he, " united in one bond of reli- 
gion, discipline and hope." Hence real Methodists do not 
speak of each other as Mr. A. of Mr/B's church ; but, having 
one common sympathy, they use the scriptural and endearing 
appellation of brother. 

8. This system disseminates the gospel among the poor as 
well as the rich. The great mass of the societies are not able, 
singly, to support a minister, and on any other system of ope- 
rations they must be left, in consequence ot their poverty, like 
sheep without a shepherd ; but itinerancy comes, and with its 
harmonious changes and revolutions, disseminates the gospel 
all over the land. 

9. The union formed by itinerancy with conferences of 
various grades, provides ample facilities for-carrying on, with. 



NECESSITY OP METHODIST EPISCOPAL BISHOPS. 137 

great efficiency, the enterprises of the age, being already or- 
ganized for every good work, with the machinery all in motion. 

10. It is valuable on the score of economy, as by it, one 
minister can supply many societies. It is well calculated to 
lead the van in new countries, with sparse population, where 
one preacher can supply twenty or thirty societies. It adapts 
itself to save men of all climes and all classes, but more espe- 
cially it thunders loudest on the frontier settlements, in the 
western world ; being at home alike^ in the cabin, the wigwam, 
the cottage and the palace. 

11. Experiment, the most infallible test of a true theory 
speaks loudly in favor of itinerancy. Its success for the last 
century, in both hemispheres, is acknowledged by all impar- 
tial judgment, for the densest communities glow and gladden 
under the freshness of its verdure, as it leads the van of the 
dissenting host's of the old world. 

12. Other denominations are beginning to arouse from the 
slumber of ages, and to adopt this plan of operation ; and more 
especially in their missionary labors, which clearly demon- 
strate their opinions of its efficiency.. 

13. It is well known that itinerancy deprives ministers of 
many of the comforts of domestic life, that it requires many 
privations and sacrifices, and that many of them could make 
more property and live easier without these changes ; but the 
good of the whole requires it, not such a change as could be 
effected by money, but such as God requires, such as throws 
life and vigor into the church of God. To be an itinerant, a 
man must leave the endearments of early life, the home of 
childhood, the abodes of friendship, the sepulchres of his fath- 
ers, and sojourn with strangers ; yet all this is expedient, be- 
cause the personal sacrifices of ease, and comfort, and home, 
will be infinitely overbalanced by the weight of eternal glory 
which shall burst upon those wandering, homeless, friendless 
pilgrims, on the resurrection morning ; when those who went 
forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall come again with 



138 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them ; when the poor, 
wearied, wandering stranger shall arrive, and shout his har- 
vest home at the palace royal of the King of kings. 
III. Itinerancy obtaining, BISHOPS ARE NEEDFUL. 

^ 1. Because itinerancy requires order and system in the ap- 
portionment of fields of labor, as all of course cannot choose 
their own. If any member of conference could go when and 
where he pleased, there would be constant bargaining and 
change and uncertainty. The rich churches could overbid the 
the poor, and confusion and disorder would prevail ; and there 
would be a temptation with some to be popular, and preach 
popular sermons, to gain higher or richer stations, Then there 
must be power somewhere to designate and apportion fields of 
labor, and in view of all considerations in the case, bishops are 
most suitable for the accomplishment of that object. 

2. If appointments are to be made by the president of con- 
ference, who is annually elected for that purpose, there must 
of course be an election in view of that circumstance, with its 

. accustomed caucusing' and management, all destructive of the 
purity and peace of the church. 

3. If made by a president, he is self -interested, he must sta- 
tion himself, not so with a bishop. 

4. If made by a president he has local feelings, has had his 
field of labor in one place, and may know nothing of the wants 
of other parts of the conference. What he learns must be 
from others, the interests of each place must be canvassed, and 
amid ignorance of facts on one side, and interest on the other, 
how can he balance the conflicting claims, and pass a sober 
judgment amid the confusion of conference % 

5. When appointments are made by a president it should 
be remembered that he has just been elected by a party, and 
that he will favor that party, or be accused of it. Not so with 
a bishop, he will not be thus liable to be swayed by faction. 

6. Should the appointments be made by a stationing com- 
mittee, elected for that purpose composed of the president of 



NECESSITY OF METHODIST EPISCOPAL BISHOPS. 139 

the conference in conjunction with three ministers and three 
laymen, on the plan of the seceders of 1843, then there must 
be the election at every conference, and it will of course be 
one in which the members of conference are all personally 
interested, and will of course be warmly contested, and all 
who have had a long acquaintance with such operations must 
consider it an insuperable barrier to the peace and prosperity 
of the church, as well as to the continuance of the itinerant 
system. 

7. In this case there will of course be two opposite parties, 
and consequently electioneering, both at conference and be- 
fore it, together with caucusing and management, with their 
long train of attendant evils. 

8. These commotions all tend to create favoritism among 
members of conference, which will be succeeded by mutual 
jealousies and dissensions, all having a tendency to keep a body 
of Christian men in a constant state of anarchy. 

9.- If the appointments are made by a stationing committee 
they are all interested in the result, and are judges in deciding 
their own case. The president must have an appointment for 
himself, also each of the three ministers, and the three laymen 
would be tempted to take -special care of their own charges. 

10. This stationing committee cannot possibly know the 
wishes of the people, or the qualifications of the preachers as 
well as the bishop and presiding elders, and therefore they 
cannot adapt the talent to the place as well as they can. 

11. They being all comparatively local or sectional men, 
cannot easily divest themselves of local predilections, and act 
alone for the general good. 

12. It would be unjust for them to have the privilege of 
choosing their own fields of labor, and of deciding the destinies 
of others, where they themselves are thus interested, and this 
prerogative in spite of all counter efforts forms a wide arena 
for jealousy and strife. 

13. They all belonged to the dominant party at the election, 



140 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

and will be accused of partiality to their friends, and will even 
be tempted to excercise it. 

14. A stationing committee would necessarily detain the 
preachers a much longer time from their important pastoral 
labor, as the presiding elders in view of their special know- 
ledge of their own districts, and of their general acquaintance 
with the whole ground, usually have the appointments partly 
arranged before conference ; or are prepared, at least, to give 
information, and expend their judgment, for the best arrange- 
ment of the work. 

15. If all the members of the annual conferences station 
themselves, it would take - much time to consider each case, 
and would soon end in anarchy and confusion. 

16. These commotions would have a direct tendency to 
injure the piety of the ministry and membership. 

17. Surplus preachers belonging to one conference could 
not conveniently be taken where they are needed in another 
without some power having jurisdiction over the whole church. 

18. It is loudly objected by reformers that after the appoint- 
ments are all'fixed, and read out by the bishop, the preachers 
have no appeal for a different station. This is the only safe 
and judicious course, because : First, they might be no bet- 
ter satisfied with the second appointment than with the first ; 
Secondly, it would be very inconvenient to change their pla- 
ces when once fixed, as it would of course be the inevitable 
occasion of many other changes ; Thirdly, others must go 
where they refused to go, and then they are dissatisfied ; and 
the wars and commotions among reformers who all wish to 
choose their own places, and enjoy the benefits of itinerancy, 
without its privations, should admonish us of the absolute ne- 
cessity of a permanent authoritative appointing power. It 
must be admitted that some think more highly of themselves 
than they ought to think, and almost invariably complain of 
the hardships of their appointments, and a subsequent change 
would make the charges no easier, nor the work lighter, 



NECESSITY OF METHODIST EPISCOPAL BISHOPS. 141 

neither would it make the system any better, but much worse. 

19. The operations of a stationing committee must necessa- 
rily lack that vigor and decision and despatch, so indispensable 
for the accomplishment of any great and important en- 
terprise. 

20. Should the arrangement of appointments be left to each 
separate charge to choose and bargain for themselves, the 
most prominent societies would be satisfied with none but the 
most popular preachers, while the less desirable appointments 
could not obtain those favored ones, hence the less popular 
preachers would fail of support by being continually on the 
poorer circuits ; and after a season of disappointment and dis- 
couragement, would leave the field ; and the management 
and negotiation which would ensue, when the societies all 
wanted the same men, and when the decision must by left to 
every body, would soon render abortive all effort to sustain 
itinerancy. 

21. The cementing influence of the bishops is necessary to 
superintend the whole work, to prevent the several annual 
conferences from becoming isolated and disjoined from each 
other. Without this, they would become dissimilar in doc- 
trine, discipline and usages, and would finally become separate 
organizations. 

22. The stationing power in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, like all other judicatories connected with human frailty 
is liable to err in judgment ; but their experience in this 
work admonishes us that mistake is less probable, and their 
piety that it will not be intentional. One of the greatest bar- 
riers to their uniform success arises from the practice of the 
charges in petitioning for preachers, for when that is done, 
and the people cannot all have their wishes granted, the sta- 
tioning power are accused of tyranny ; the minister who is sent 
is too frequently received with coldness, and his influence and 
success are destroyed. But the church should remember that 
to sustain the general cause each charge must have a minister. 



142 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

and every minister a charge, and that the people cannot pos- 
sibly be the best judges of what is best for the great whole. 
But should they petition they might not be unanimous, and 
that again might create division ; and if they are all agreed 
and obtain the man of their choice, they may expect too much 
of their favorite minister. If the charges have a right to 
choose their preachers, the preachers have an equal right to 
choose their places, and these conflicting claims will intro- 
duce disorder, and must terminate in defeat. The best peti- 
tion for a preacher is at the throne of grace.. After trying 
every expedient it will obviously be found that there is no 
method of appointing itinerant preachers to their fields of la- 
bor so just to all concerned, so convenient, so enlightened, 
so free from bias and faction and controversy, as by the bish- 
ops with the cabinet of presiding elders ^as their privy coun- 
sellors. The bishop, being a general itinerant himself, is of 
course free from local prejudices, and the presiding elders 
having severally had their fields of labor, embracing in the 
aggregate the whole conference, and having personally visited 
all their charges each quarter, during the year, will come up 
to the conference with more correct and definite information, 
in relation to the capabilities of each preacher, and to the 
wants of the church in each place, than any other body of 
men in the world ; and they can concentrate this information 
in the bishop and cabinet. This light being thus centred in 
the bishop as the focal point, with his disciplinary advisers, he 
can proceed, without bias, to survey the whole ground, and 
make the appointments. This is not only the best method of 
distributing preachers, but the only one compatible with the 
very existence and continuance of a church of itinerant min- 
isters, in a healty state : and should the bishops become un- 
suitable for the important work, it is desirable that the men 
should be changed, and not.the form of government. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



CONTRAST BETWEEN THE PREROGATIVES OF METHODTST 
BISHOPS AND THOSE OF OTHER CHURCHES. 

According to the opinion of some modern reformers, there 
is no class of men so much above all law and rule as Metho- 
dist bishops, and none of whom the public have been so loud- 
ly admonished to beware. Other bishops, with powers vastly 
more extensive, have entirely escaped the odium so profusely 
lavished on the Methodist- Episcopacy ; and we now propose 
to hold them up together in the light of contrast. 

Passing over the powers of the bishops of the Roman 
church, where the civil and ecclesiastical offices are blended, 
and vested in them-; and* also over those of the church of 
England where the bishops are all members of the house of 
lords, with high salaries, and splendid titles ; we come to con- 
trast the powers of Methodist bishops with those of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church in the United States. 

1. In the latter church, by the third article in the constitu- 
tion, the bishops in the general convention form a separate 
house for the- transaction of business ; but in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church no such prerogative is guarantied in the 
general conference. This prerogative was derived from the 
Papal church, through the church of England, and places 
much independent authority at the disposal of the episcopacy. 

2. By the same article in their constitution, the house of 
bishops have a negative, upon, all the acts of the house of 
deputies, so that no law can be enacted, abrogated or altered 
without their consent. This veto power is unknown tatfaa; 



144 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

Methodist Episcopacy. They cannot vote, even to give a 
casting vote in the general conference, or any other con- 
ference. 

3. The same article guarantees to the bishops the right to 
"originate and propose acts for the concurrence of the house 
of deputies," but the bishops in the general conference 
have no such prerogative secured to them, for there the 
members may take up and transact such business as they 
please. 

4. The first canon of 1S33, declares : that "the house of 
bishops may nominate to the house of clerical and lay depu- 
ties, for their concurrence, a suitable person for the office of 
bishop, who shall, in case of their concurrence, be conse- 
crated as the bishop of such diocese :" but the constitution of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church gives the bishops no such 
prerogative. 

5. The Episcopal constitution says : that " none but a bish- 
op shall pronounce sentence of deposition or degradation from 
the ministry on any clergyman whether bishop or presbyter 
or deacon ;" whereas this is not numbered with the chartered 
rights of Methodist Episcopacy. 

6. The fifth canon of 1832 relating to the consecration 
of bishops, declares, that "if the house of bishops consent to 
the consecration, the presiding bishop with any two bishops 
may proceed to perform the same ;" but in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church the consent of bishops is not necessary to the 
consecration of ministers. 

7. The fourth canon of 1832, says: "In every diocese 
where there is a bishop, the standing committee shall be a 
council of advice to the bishop. They shall be summoned on 
the requisition of the bishop whenever he shall wish for their 
advice : but no such disciplinary provision is made for Metho- 
dist bishops. 

8. The forty seventh canon of 1832, decrees: that "the 



CONTRAST BETWEEN METHODIST AND OTHER BISHOPS. 145 

bishop of each diocese may compose forms of prayer or 
thanksgiving as the case may require for extraordinary occa- 
sions, and transmit them to each clergyman within his diocese 
whose duty it shall be to use such forms in his church on such 
occasions ;" but the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
have no constitutional right to dictate what forms of prayer 
ministers or members shall use. 

9. The forty ninth canon of 1832, says : " that the right 
of calling special meetings of the general convention shall be 
in the bishops ;" but in the Methodist economy it also re- 
quires " all the annual conferences respectively" to call a 
general conference. 

10. In the second section, the same canon declares : that 
" the place of holding any special convention shall be that 
fixed on by the preceding general convention for the meeting 
of the next general convention, unless circumstances shall ren- 
der a meeting at such a place unsafe ; in which case the pre- 
siding bishop may appoint some other place ;" but the disci- 
pline of the Methodist Episcopal Church declares that " each 
annual conference shall appoint the place of its own sitting" 
and confers no right on the bishop to change it. 

11. The fifth canon of 1835, declares : that " every min- 
ister shall be amenable for offences committed by him to the 
bishop ;" but in the Methodist economy, ministers are amen- 
able to the conference, and not to the bishop. 

12. By the fourth canon of 1838, " every person who 
desires to become a candidate for holy orders in this church 
shall in the first instance give notice of his intention to the 
bishop ;" but no such requisition is made in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

13. In the Protestant Episcopal Church it is the sole pre- 
rogative of the bishops to admit persons to membership by 
confimation ; but in Methodism the bishops have no such 

right. 

10 



146 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

1.4. This same discrepancy between the prerogatives of 
bishops obtains also in pecuniary support. Whilst the " Fund 
for the support of the Episcopate" usually secures a salary of 
from two to six thousand dollars per annum, to an Episcopal 
bishop ; those of the Methodist Episcopal Church only realize 
about as many hundreds, their salaries being just the same as 
those of any other Methodist preacher. 

15. But when infirmities approach, and old age comes on, 
as come it must, unless death shall intervene, their pecuniary 
prospects are still more widely different. The sixth canon 
of 1832 provides that " when a bishop of the diocese is unable, 
by reason of old age, or other permanent cause of infirmity, 
to discharge the episcopal duties one assistant bishop may be 
elected by and for the said diocese." Here we find them pro- 
vided for, they can retain their office without bearing its bur- 
dens when age and infirmity press upon them : but the disci- 
pline of the Methodist Episcopal Church declares^ in the case 
of a bishop, that "if he cease from travelling without the con- 
sent of the general conference, he shall not thereafter exer- 
cise the episcopal office in our church." Here he is entirely 
at the mercy of the general conference, a body to whom he 
is amenable, but in which he has not right to vote. These are 
the "high prerogatives" of Methodist bishops, of which so 
much has been ungenerously and unjustly said and written by 
modern reformers. They have gravely been pronounced 
"dangerous to the liberties of the church" and petitions have 
been sent to the general conference for a " moderate episco- 
pacy," but if this is not sufficiently moderate how can it be 
made so, unless the office and its occupants are chased out of 
the world ? 

16. But it is said that " they have the prerogative of sta- 
tioning preachers, which is a greater stretch of power than 
is possessed by the bishops in any other church." As this is 
a grave charge, and has often been made, it is worthy of a 
candid answer. 



CONTRAST BETWEEN METHODIST AND OTHER BISHOPS. 147 

First ; We have seen that bishops are necessary in itine- 
rancy, that there must be a stationing power vested some- 
where, to distribute appointments, and that this work cannot 
be accomplished with speed and safety, except by bishops and 
their constitutional advisers. Secondly; We have seen, that 
in all other particulars their prerogatives are far below those 
of other Episcopal Churches. Thirdly ; It should be remem- 
bered that other well organized denominations do not let their 
ministers and churches all go at random. Instance in the 
Protestant Episcopal Church, the fourth canon of 1835 re- 
quires, that the bishop of the diocese shall be consulted by the 
clergyman in relation to his settlement as pastor ; and it de- 
clares that the bishop can " confirm or reject the appoint- 
ment ;" and thus the bishop has powers in his diocese, similar 
even in this respect to those of Methodist bishops ; and this is 
done for the sake of preserving order and system in their ope- 
rations. So in the Presbyterian Church, the presbytery have 
the entire supervision of each church and minister within its 
bounds, and no minister shall be translated from one church 
to another, nor shall he receive any call for the purpose, but 
by the permission of the presbytery. Any church desiring 
to call a minister shall represent the case to the presbytery, 
and they shall decide. This is acting for the good of the 
whole church, and 'were it otherwise there might be a constant 
series of bargaining- and overbidding. The rich congrega- 
tions could get all the ablest ministers from the poor, and their 
various revolutions would keep the church in constant disor- 
der and confusion. Every church is bound, at its peril, to 
act for the general good ; and those who prove recreant to 
this high trust are unworthy to hold it. 

The prerogatives of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church are no higher than is necessary for the good govern- 
ment of the church of God ; and those disorganizes who 
would'wantonly cripple their power, or destroy their conser- 
vative influence, would inflict a w r ound on the church of Christ 



148 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

which could not be healed. Pure may the episcopacy of 
Methodism remain as it has always been ; long may it stand 
as it has always stood ; a towering monument of the wisdom of 
its founder, and a bright and radiant ornament in the church 
of God. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



OF THE PRESBYTERIAL ARISTOCRACY OF METHODISM, OK 
THE POWERS OF ITS PRESBYTERS. 

Having examined the first of the three fundamental parts 
of the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church, viz : 
its episcopacy, or that which imparts the potency so needful 
to its high designs, an ecclesiastical power somewhat analo- 
gous, in' efficiency, to a limited monarchy, yet so fully re- 
stricted as to prevent its endangering the liberties of any 
member : we come now to investigate the second constituent 
part, viz : its aristocracy, or the power wielded by the pres- 
byters of the church. 

It should be remembered that the framers of the constitu- 
tion of Methodist economy believed that the true church of 
Christ is a Theocracy, that it is under the immediate super- 
vision of God himself, that its government is by Divine ap- 
pointment, that the will of God is the source of all authority, 
and that a converted ministry, in the true succession of piety 
and holiness, being called of God, and anointed by him, and 
set apart for the holy work, are the only truly authorized ex- 
pounders of the will of God* 

They attentively read the Holy Scriptures, and justly be- 
lieved that our Lord Jesus Christ, when he instituted his 
church, gave certain governmental prerogatives to his minis- 
ters, as Titus 2, 15, "These things speak, and exhort, and re- 
buke with all authority." Heb. 13, 7, "Remember them 
which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the 
word of God" — ver. 17, " Obey them that have the rule over 
you, and submit yourselves : for they watch for your souls, as 



150 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

they that must give account." The Scriptures hold minis- 
ters awfully responsible to God for the purity and prosperity 
of the church. Ezek. 34, 10, " Thus saith the Lord God, be- 
hold T am against the shepherds ; and I will require my flock 
at their hand." And when the Lord said unto the servant, 
" Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to 
come in that my house may be filled" the servant did not an- 
swer his Lord by saying " I will do so as far as the church 
call me. 

Those founders of the church believed that the true scrip- 
tural repository of church government in the ministry was 
not only safe, as it is always safe to obey God, but also that it 
was expedient, and that the senatorial wisdom and circumspec- 
tion of an aristocracy, as forming an integral part in the con- 
stitution and government of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
were necessary to its stability and success. On that scriptu- 
ral plan it was formed, on that plan it has stood, and on that 
plan it still stands. 

I. The Presbyterial Aristocracy of Methodism is manifest 
in the General Conference, the highest ecclesiastical judi- 
catory, where ministers of age and experience, chosen quad- 
rennially, assemble as a court of appellate jurisdiction, and as 
the law-expounding department of the church. Here, coming 
from every part of the great field, and representing the aggre- 
gate of the annual conferences, they unite more wisdom and 
circumspection than could be found in the bishops, and more 
despatch than could be realized from the assembly of the 
whole church. 

One of the prime objections urged by reformers against this 
part of the polity of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is ; that 
it does not provide for a lay delegation to the general confer- 
ence ; and it is said that this takes from the members the right 
of participating in making the laws of the church. But be- 
fore this feature in church government is condemned, let it be 
fairly and candidly examined. The author of this work knows 



PRESBYTERIAL ARISTOCRACY OP METHODISM. 151 

of no cogent reason in favor of lay delegation, but finds the 
following against it: 

1. It is believed that there is no precept in scripture which 
prescribes it. 

2. That there is no example for it. If there is either, let 
those who favor that system of ecclesiastical polity bring it 
forward, as this has never yet been done. 

3. We have good reason to believe that lay delegation did 
not obtain in the apostolical churches. 

4. It is claimed on the wrong supposition that those bodies 
are to exercise legislative powers, or that the moral code 
is to be changed or revised. This cannot be, for God and 
not the church enacted it, and the church cannot alter it. 

5. It is demanded because taxation and representation are 
inseparable, but the church have never in any instance enac- 
ted rules to tax the members, nor claimed or exercised a right 
to do so. 

6. It has been asked for on the ground that as the persons 
of the laity are under the control of the church, they should be 
represented ; but the general conference have never thought 
themselves authorized to enact rules to touch their persons, 
or to affect the life or limb or rational liberty of any man. 

7. Another barrier in the way of the success of lay delega- 
tion is of the pecuniary kind. The travelling expenses of the 
lay delegates, their board while in attendance, as well as some 
compensation for the loss of time and derangement of business 
are worthy of consideration, as these things might not all be 
gratuitously provided, as is ordinarily done for travelling 
preachers. 

8. How can the qualifications of candidates be known, liv- 
ing as they do at a great distance apart, and all being private 
members % It is impossible. 

9. These elections will of course create faction and caucus- 
ing, electioneering and management, all destructive to Chris- 
tian fellowship, and to the charity which " thinketh no evil." 



152 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

10. The history of the church teaches that this union of the 
laity with the clergy has a tendency to secularize both, and 
to destroy their spirituality, and this change in the ecclesiastical 
polity of the church will probably never be effected till it can 
be clearly proved that the sheep should govern the shepherds. 

But the subject of lay delegation is more extensively ex- 
amined in the XV. chapter of this work, to which the reader 
is directed. . 

11. This mode of government is apparent, secondly, in the 
annual conferences ; where all the travelling preachers 
in full connection and those eligible to be received, assemble-; 
to examine the christian and ministerial character of each 
member, to sit as a court of appeal for local preachers, to 
transact periodical, missionary and much other business, and 
to receive their appointments for the subsequent year. Here 
again we perceive an aristocracy of preachers, representing 
the spiritual interests of every portion of the conference, and 
this too without a lay delegation. All the reasons against this 
representation in the general conference are equally applica- 
ble in an annual conference, and besides it would so increase 
the members in conferenue by doubling them, that it would 
be more difficult, if not impossible to find a place to entertain 
it annually, it would render it more inconvenient to transact 
the business in so large an assembly ; and the laymen would 
have none- of their own to do. 

We here insert the experience of one long and thoroughly 
versed in the school of reform, one of the leaders in the seces- 
sion of Protestant Methodists in 1827, and one who is violent- 
ly embittered against the government of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, and has contributed much to produce in it a 
spirit of anarchy. He has promoted misrule, and seen its 
practical workings in all its various ramifications, till he ought 
to be satisfied with its tendencies. It is an extract from a let- 
ter from Rev. A Shinn, to Rev. O. Scott, published in " The 
True Wesleyan" of Feb. 18, 1843. 



PRESBYTERIAL ARISTOCRACY OP METHODISM. 153 

" In regard to church organization, I hope jou. will retain 
as much energy in the government, as will consist with uni- 
versal liberty. The love of power is a deep disease in human 
nature ; and it is not confined to any one order of men. The 
sovereign people are as proud of their sovereignly as a mon- 
arch upon his throne ; and the lawless rage of a mob is no 
better than that of an individual t}a-ant. If you put all power in- 
to the democratic body, they will soon show themselves "many 
masters ;" and a destructive anarchy will be as great a traitor 
to the Redeemer, as a domineering hierarchy. It is probable 
you will have to admit lay delegates into annual conferences, 
though this made no part of our claims, during the whole of 
our controversy in the Methodist Episcopal Church. A lay 
representation in the law making department, was all we con- 
tended for ; but since then we have gone far beyond the ori- 
ginal ground, and have had no little difficulty in keeping our 
denomination from being scattered to the winds, by a loose 
and deplorable spirit of anarchy. Lay delegates in annual 
conferences, however, might be a useful element of govern- 
ment provided the sole object should be a fair representation 
of the circuits and stations ; but an ambition for an equal num- 
ber of such delegates in annual conferences with the minis- 
terial members, when they are held to no such responsibility 
in those bodies as the ministers are, can take its rise from no- 
thing else than the same love of sovereign power which ani- 
mates a bishop in his chair, or a king upon his throne. In 
our convention of 1830, I labored to have the constitutional 
rule so modified and established, that there should be only one 
lay delegate for each circuit and' station, — but in this I was 
overruled ; and from that day until now, the- evidence has 
been constant and uniform, that the love of power in the sov- 
ereign people as regularly turns a deaf ear to argument, as 
does the love of power in bishops or itinerant ministers. All 
Adam's race are laboring under the same disease ; and the 
only safety for mankind, either in church or state, is to balance 



154 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

power in different hands, that they may be a mutual check 
upon each other, whereby the spirit of domineering sover- 
eignly is limited and restrained against its will. The pre- 
tence that this masterly ambition is confined to certain orders 
of men, such as priests and nobles, while the democratic peo- 
ple are all pure, is a ridiculous claim of demagogues and 
Atheists, which cannot bear examination, and which has been 
contradicted by the entire history of mankind." 

It should be remembered that this is a friendly letter of ad- 
vice from an old seceder to one just commencing, and was 
designed to guard against the rocks on which the former split. 
We learn from it several truths in church polity which are 
worth preserving. 

1. That energy is a valuable ingredient in ecclesiastical 
government. 

2. That the democratic people are as proud and domineer- 
ing, even in the estimation of an old reformer, as bishops and 
ministers. 

3. That they had no little difficulty in keeping their " de- 
nomination from being scattered to the winds, by a loose and 
deplorable spirit of anarchy." How much they came short 
of it the writer does not see fit to inform us. 

4. He says, "It is probable you will have to admit lay del- 
egates into annual conferences." But why % Not because 
it is right, or scriptural, or expedient ; but the ultra seeeders 
must be gratified right or wrong ; and they, in his estimation, 
are as ungovernable and turbulent as itinerant ministers or 
even bishops. 

5. We learn that it is not safe to have more than "one lay 
delegate for each circuit and station." This then is* the rock 
on which they foundered, for they admitted as many lay dele- 
gates as ministers from each circuit and station. But did the 
reformers of 1843 hear the voice of experience ? They did 
not. The twenty ninth page of their discipline says ; that 
their annual conference shall be composed of as many lay del- 



PRESBYTERIAL ARISTOCRACY OP METHODISM. 155 

egates " as there may be ministers in fall connection or to be 
received into full connection :" hence there may be several 
from each charge ; and if this was one of the main causes why 
the former seceders were "scattered to the winds, by a loose 
and deplorable spirit of anarchy" what shall prevent the lat- 
ter, who follow in the same track, from arriving at the same 
end ? There were doubtless some in the Utica Convention, 
-at which the discipline was formed, who would have been glad 
of a good vigorous government, but the majority had suffered 
so much in their estimation, from the tyranny of bishops and 
itinerant preachers, that they were now for extensive liberty , 
and from all these proceedings we learn, that when men break 
over the rules of good order, and give way to pride and pas- 
sion, they cannot tell where they may carry them. 

It has sometimes been objected that an annual conference 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church is a monopoly in the re- 
ception of ministers, without the consent of the people ; but 
let it be remarked that in the Protestant Episcopal Church 
every candidate for the ministry must first notify the bishop, 
and that without this he cannot be licensed ; in the Presbyte- 
rian Church they are admitted by the presbytery ; and in the 
Congregational Church the association of ministers only admit 
them. In the Methodist Episcopal Church the members con- 
stitute, and the ministers receive them into the annual confer- 
ence, and this is right so long as it is written ; "The spirits 
of the prophets are subject to the prophets." 

III. The Presbyterial Aristocracy of Methodism as an in- 
tegral, part of its whole economy is again manifest in the ap- 
pointment OF CLASS LEADERS, AND IN THE NOMINATION OP 

stewards. Loud objections have been made to this power, 
and the ministers have been denounced as tyrants because they 
possessed it ; but before they are rashly condemned let us con- 
sider the reasons why they are invested with it. 

1. Class leaders are the minister's assistants in their 
pastoral labors, it being Iheir duty to see each member once 



156 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

a week, and as this spiritual supervision rightly appertains 
to the preacher, and as he is responsible to God for its per- 
formance, he should have the privilege of choosing his own 
agent. 

2. It is strictly in accordance with democratic principles to 
have them appointed by the minister, for he was constituted 
such by the laity, and should appoint his own assistants, for 
the same reasons that the president of the United States does 
his cabinet. Unanimity of sentiment and feeling are equally 
desirable in both cases. 

3. It is proper that the leader should be appointed by the 
minister, to prevent the church from becoming divided into 
contending factions, "some for Paul and some for Apollos." 

4. To avoid an electioneering campaign for several weeks 
or months, carrying caucusing, discord and confusion into the 
class, and perhaps the whole church. 

5. Should the leader be elected by the class he might feel a 
prejudice against those who voted against him, and a bias for 
those in his favor, which would render him at once a partisan^ 
and unsuitable for the office. 

6. Members of the class would be almost sure to be displea- 
sed with the admonitions of the leader after having voted 
against him, because his reproofs would be considered as em- 
anating from party prejudice. 

7. If elected by the class fhe frailty of poor erring man is 
such, that there would be, with many, a greater ambition for 
popularity, then for spirituality, a greater desire to please the 
church, than to do right in every instance and please God. 

8. Many classes are frequently composed of large majori- 
ties of young converts who intend well, but are indiscreet and 
extravagant, and in such cases age and experience, the only 
conservative material suitable for advice and instruction, would 
almost invariably be supplanted by the young and inexperien- 
ced and excitable. 

9. This course has been thoroughly tried by seceders for 



PRESBYTER1AL ARISTOCRACY OF METHODISM. 157 

nearly twenty years, and the commotions and distractions 
■which have been the rusult, have well tested the impractica- 
bility of the scheme. 

10. Every leader should, like a supreme judge of the Uni- 
ted States, hold his office in such a manner as to render him 
independent in the just and equitable performance of duty, and 
he should be able to admonish his members without the con- 
sequent hazard of losing his election. 

11. Ministers usually consult the class, especially the experi- 
enced and judicious part of them, and should act with caution, 
and if consistent appoint the man of their choice ; but should 
never prove so far recreant to their high trust as to sacrifice 
the interests of the church to contending factions, when it is 
so much better for them to make the appointment than to go 
into an electfon, with its long train of attendant evils. 

Stewards are appointed by the nomination of the preacher, 
to be confirmed or rejected by the quarterly conference. This 
cannot be objectionable, because : 

1. It is not opposed to the principles of democracy, as the pre- 
sident by and with the advice and consent of the senate, appoints 
ambassadors, consuls, judges of the supreme court, etc., as 
the preacher nominates stewards, and the quarterly confer- 
ence confirm or reject such nomination. 

2. If he does not make the nomination some other one, per- 
haps not the most discreet, will ; and he will be more apt 
to be partial from the fact of long acquaintance, relationship 
or other cause distinct from official talent. 

3. The quarterly conference can reject till he shall nomi- 
nate those who are satisfactory. 

IV. This form of church government is manifest in the 
appointment op committees for the trial of members. 
But it has been objected that this is an unwarrantable usur- 
pation of power. This exception would doubtless be taken 
with becoming deference by the. Episcopalian, where the cler- 
gyman is judge and jury both, as also from the presbyterial con- 



158 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

stitution, where the pastor is connected with the ruling elders, 
and votes directly in the case ; especially when it is remem- 
bered that the minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church pre- 
sides for order, and not for judgment, and cannot give even a 
casting vote. The power of appointing a jury must be lodged 
somewhere ; in- civil suits it is left with the sheriff or con- 
stable, and in ecclesiastical causes it can be vested in no one 
with more safety than with the pastor. 

Another objection frequently urged is, that members have 
no right to challenge the jury when appointed. To this we 
answer, first ; that no such prerogative is known in the epis- 
copal, presbyterial or congregational forms of government, 
and, secondly ; it would often defeat the ends of justice ; for 
in sparse settlements and small societies, the right of challenge 
would absolutely preclude the expulsion of the 'obstinate by 
the society of which he is a member, as he could soon chal- 
lenge down all opposition. 

Again, a practice contended for by some is, to have each party 
choose two members, and these four the fifth. This too is lia- 
ble to the following objections : First, each might choose his 
own friends or relatives who were biased and interested, and 
and their judgment would not be like that of sober disinteres- 
ted men. Secondly, it is unlike the acts of any civil govern- 
ment, however democratic ; for they never premit men to 
choose their own juries, except in cases of arbitration, when 
dollars and cents only are concerned, but never in criminal 
causes. Thirdly, it would divest all power from the pastor ; 
whereas the Scriptures plainly declare that the ambassador for 
Christ shall rebuke with * ; all authority," which he can do by 
his committee. 

But the most objectionable plan of all yet devised is that 
adopted by the seceders of 1843, where the accused has the 
privilege of being tried by the church, or by a committee, ap- 
pointed by the church : whereas they declare on the ninth 
page of their discipline that a church is an assembly, of. belie-- 



PRESBYTERIAL. ARISTOCRACY OF METHODISM. 159 

vers "assembled in any one place, for religious worship," 
Now we will suppose,' for illustration, that they have a large 
circuit embracing a wide- extent of country, with twenty or 
thirty appointments, one of which contains twelve members, 
of whom are a father with three sons, all having wives, making 
eight, and the other four making up the twelve, who, accor- 
ding to their definition, compose the entire church. Such or 
similar family connections are frequent in such societies. Sup- 
pose then that one of the sons enters largely into^the business 
of buying and selling slaves, and is arraigned to be tried, as 
their rule directs, by the committee appointed brv the church, or 
by the entire church. In both cases he will be entirely safe. If 
he chooses to be tried by a committee appointed by the church, 
his father and two brothers being a majority can appoint them- 
selves, or if he choose the entire church they are the majority 
and can vote him notguiity, and there is no appeal. They 
may buy and sell as many human chatties as they please, and 
their supple system may shield them ; but if either of the other 
four members should speak out, just then, against manstealing, 
they could arraign them: for slander and expel them. If this 
same circumstance should transpire in the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church the clergyman could expel him ; if in the Presby- 
terian, the pastor and ruling elders could do it; if in the Con- 
gregational Church he could be arraigned before the church 
and the church with them would not in that case be a society 
" assembled in any one place for religious worship," but all 
under the pastoral care of one minister, and they could easily 
expel him.. Should it happen in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church he could be tried " by the society, or a select number," 
not at the discretion of the accused, but of the minister; and 
in either case he could be expelled, for by the decision of 
Bishop Hedding on the 1 "administration of discipline" they 
may go " to the circuit, for want of suitable members, for the 
' select number' in the neighborhood where the accused be- 
longs ;" so that the committee could be made of impartial men 2 , 



160 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

and the case could easily be decided ; but it was left for the 
transcendent wisdom of the seceders of 1843, in their wild 
rush for the extension of privilege, to devise, in their system 
of management a plan of universal emancipation from punish- 
ment for manstealing. 

It is the opinion of many who have closely investigated the 
forms of government in the various churches, that a fairer 
trial can be had in the Methodist Episcopal Church than in 
that of any ether. In the Episcopal Church if the clergyman 
is partial he can act directly in the case, and acquit or con- 
demn ; but in the Methodist Episcopal Church he must have 
a committee, and though they may be partially selected, the 
action is not so direct. In the Presbyterian Church the ru- 
ling elders may have relatives or connections, or they may be 
interested in the event of the case, yet they must decide it ; 
whereas according to Methodist economy such members could 
be rejected from the committee by the minister. So in the 
Congregational Church a part or even a majority may be rel- 
atives, or biased by other means, so as to render them unsuit- 
able to act, yet it is their privilege to do so ; whereas in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church every member has a right to a 
trial by an impartial committee. Methodist ministers may be 
prepossessed in favor of one side like all other men, but being 
itinerants they are more to apt to be seperate from relatives, 
and from local predilections, and to feel a common interest 
for the general welfare of the church. 

When fully developed and examined in all their parts, it will 
be seen that the prerogatives of the ministers in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, of which so much complaint has been made 
by schismatics, are no more extensive than are warranted by 
scripture, or than comport with the general prosperity of the 
church ; besides which, they are cautiously restrained by cor- 
responding checks and balances, as will be most fully demon- 
strated in a subsequent chapter of this work. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



OF THE NECESSITY OP PRESIDING ELDERS IN THE METHO- 
DIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The office of presiding elder did not enter directly into 
the original plan of Mr. Wesley at the organization of the 
church in America; but he requested that only as many el- 
ders should be ordained as were absolutely necessary for the 
prosecution of the work. The conference then elected and 
ordained but twelve to that office, for more than one hundred 
circuits, so that many were left without the ordinances, as 
deacons were only authorized to " assist" in the administration 
of the Lord's supper. Those twelve elders were instructed to 
go from circuit to circuit to perform the services contemplated 
in their appointment. The operation of the plan was so suc- 
cessful that the office which at first was temporary soon become 
permanent, and like the other principal features of Methodism 
was incorporated into the polity of the church, from a practical 
demonstration of its utility. Our fathers believed that though 
the word might not be the same as in our translation, yet that 
presiding, superintending or ruling elders were scriptural, as 
well as expedient, and that the distinction between them and 
travelling elders was not in order, but in office. 

Who should appoint the presiding elder has been the fre- 
quent inquiry. This can easily be answered by an investiga- 
tion of the nature of the office. It should be remembered that 
they are the bishops' assistants, as he cannot superintend the 
vast work on every separate circuit and station, without their 
agency, and as it is their business to perform his work, he 

should have the power of appointing and changing them. It 

11 



162 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

is as proper that the presiding elder should be men in whom 
the bishop can confide, as that the secretaries of state, war, and 
the navy, should be men in whom the president can repose 
trust, in carrying out his administration, and a collision in 
opinion and action would destroy union and prove disastrous 
if not fatal to the success of all their operations. Were the 
presiding elders to be elected br the conference, according to 
the wishes of some, then elections and caucusing, would ensue 
with jealousies and dissensions, and the symmetry and beauty 
and order and strength of kinerancy would sooitbe laid in the 
dust. 

While their -appointment is vested in the episcopacy they 
a:e not only amenable to him for all their official condu:-:. 
and liable to be displaced by him ; but they are also responsi- 
ble to the conference, for all their moral and relisrious c 
duct, and are subject to be censured or expelled by them like 
any other minister. 

The xecessitt of this class of church officers will bee: .: 
obvious in view of the following considerations : 

1. They serve to create that union and harmony in the 
ministration of discipline which is so essential to the efficiency 
of the itinerant system. As disunion prevails the energies of 
...-: church are dissipated, and its strength scattered. The 
great secret in the success of Methodism, in exerting its salu- 
tary influence on its millions, is, that is has moved in harmony 
and acted in unbroken phalanx ; but confine the administration 
of discipline to each particular charge, and diversities of that 
administration with consequent schisms aad divisions would be 
me direct res;..:. 

•2. T;:ese church officers form a connecting link in the 
chain of ecclesiastical polity which is so essential to its po- 
tency : not only, in giving life and animation to quarterly 
meetings, but in imparting efficiency to the vast machine 
where all the parts are dependent on the others, and where 
a disruption of one would disjoin and ruin the whole. 



NECESSITY OP METHODIST PRESIDING ELDERS. 163' 

3. A presiding elder is necessary to act as president of the' 
quarterly conference, and no other person could do it'so suit- 
ably. If the preacher in charge should preside he might have 
brought an appeal from the judgment of the committee and in 
that case it would not be as suitable for' him 'to do so ; neither 
should a local preacher, exhorter, steward or leader, because 
they being local in their situation, might be interested either 
for themselves or their relatives, or might 'have entered into the 
interests of one of the parties, and Have prejudged the case. 
Thus the presiding elder is the only suitable person to preside' 
in the quarterly conference."- 

4. Itinerancy requires superintendence, and as the bishops 
cannot always be on every district to enter specially, into 
the wants of each society, so presiding elders are necessary to 
act as their agents. 

5. Circumstances frequently transpire which render it ad- 
visable to change preachers from one charge to another, on 
the same district, in the intervals of conference ; but' none in 
the absence of the bishop can do it so suitably as the presiding: 
elder' who has an eye upon every charge, and knows the wants 
and wishes of the people, as well as the qualifications of the 
preachers. 

6. The preservation of purity in the gospel ministry is es- 
sential to its very existence as well ias success ; and none can 
as properly arrest and suspend a preacher for immoral con- 
duct as the presiding elder. This duty devolves on him by 
the discipline, and were it not enjoined, a laxness of discipline 
might ensue, fatal to the interests of the church. 

7. In case of the sickness, death or withdrawal of preachers 
none can so well know the resources for the supply of the 
vacancies as the presiding elder of the district. 

8. In order to the success of the itinerancy the bishops 
should have a comprehensive view of the work, and none can 
give it as correctly as the presiding elder. Being present at 
the quarterly meetings, and travelling through the whole dis- 



164 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

trict he can impart all necessary information concerning the 
district in general, and every charge in particular. 

9. Itinerancy presupposes the mutual responsibility of 
preachers, one to another ; for as each minister may in some 
way come in contact with any charge in the conference ; so 
all the charges as well as all the preachers are common prop- 
erty, and all responsible to the conference. None then can 
give the conference so extensive and definite a view of this 
common stock as the presiding elder. 

10. As the fixing of the appointments of the preachers at 
conference is one of the most difficult, perplexing and respon- 
sible duties of the episcopacy, and as the bishop cannot possi- 
bly know the state of each society without the information 
communicated by the presiding elders, they are indispensable 
to the success of the itinerant plan. They know the wants of 
the people, and the various talents of the preachers, and are bet- 
ter prepared to adapt those talents to those wants than they or 
any other body of men could be, were that office abolished. 

Thus in whatever light we view it we find that office necessa- 
ry among us. But it is said that in England they have no pre- 
siding elders, and that their plan operates well. But it is answer- 
ed that they have a " chairman of the district" who devotes one 
part of his time to that, and the residue to a circuit as a pastor. 
This plan has frequently been tried in this country, 'without 
success. If the districts are made smaller, more chairmen are 
necessary, and they must be paid in proportion to the amount 
of time and labor bestowed, and it is found that each district 
requires all the time of the presiding elder, and that the pre- 
siding elder needs all the time to prepare to give an enlighten- 
ed account of the district at the conference. A circuit or 
station of sufficient importance to demand the services of such 
a minister needs them all the time, and after all the changes 
which have been devised, or partially executed, no plan has 
yet proved as successful as the present presiding elder system. 

Whenever it is proposed to annihilate any branch of this 



NECESSITY OP METHODIST PRESIDING ELDERS. 165 

economy it should always be considered in connection with 
all the other parts, as every part has been found essential to the 
vitality and vigor of the rest. Much of the success of Metho- 
dism is doubtless attributable- to the zeal and self-sacrifice of 
the ministry, and the labors and pious example of the mem- 
bers ; as well as to the pure doctrines of a free, full and pre- 
sent salvation ; but the excellence of its polity as a prominent 
element is obvious in giving strength and efficiency to the 
whole organization. 

The great tendency of the office is to perpetuate union, to 
harmonize the several parts, and to concentrate the energies 
of the whole church. When we see so many surrounding 
tendencies to disunion every minister and every christian 
should beware of taking a course which would tend to unsettle 
and scatter. If the office of presiding elder were abolished in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, it would soon become Con- 
gregational, lose its force and energy, and finally be supplan- 
ted by some holy people, willing to sacrifice self on the altar 
of the common welfare. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



•OF THE CONGREGATIONAL DEMOCRACY • OF METHODISM, OK 
THE POWERS OF THE LAITY. 

Having analyzed the first two constituent parts of the polity 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, viz., its episcopacy and 
its presbyterial aristocracy, we come now to the consideration 
of the third and last, which is the congregational democracy, 
or the power invested in 'the lay members of the church. 
This is the controling element which checks and balances the 
power of the bishops and presbyters, and preserves that equa- 
librium so observable in the practical operations of Methodist 
economy. It may be considered as follows : 

I. In the support of the gospel. 

II. In the reception of members. 

III. In the holding of church property. 

IV. In the admission of men to the ministry. 

V. In the trial of members. 

VI. In the equity of their appeals. 
I, In the support of the gospel. 

1. It is w T ell known that unlike the ministers of most other 
-denominations, Methodist preachers make no contracts for a 
stipulated sum, as an equivalent for a specified amount of labor, 
but that they obey the call of God, and go on like the early 
apostles and preach the gospel, depending on the liberality and 
justice of the people. Here the preacher is powerless and the 
entire authority is with the membership. 

2. Methodist preachers have no means of enforcing the pay- 
ment of a cent for their support, for although the discipline 
provides for a certain allowance, it furnishes no means to ob- 
tain it ; and there is no article even to expose a member to 



CONGREGATIONAL DEMOCRACY OP METHODISM. 167 

censure for neglecting or refusing to contribute for the sup- 
port of the gospel. 

3. He cannot prosecute a civil suit for his allowance, even 
if he desire to do so, because, first ; the people have' made no 
express contract ; and, secondly ; there is no implied stipula- 
tion, for they support their preachers by voluntary contribu- 
tion. 

4. This ecclesiastical polity 'gives no right to lay a tax on 
any member for the support of the gospel, nor to collect it 
when laid. 

5. But to finish out the chapter of uncertainties, as it is un- 
derstood that the disciplinary allowance of one hundred dollars 
to a single, and two hundred to a married preacher annually, 
with sixteen dollars for each child under seven, and twenty- 
four for those between seven and fourteen are insufficient for 
their support, the quarterly conference are authorized to ap- 
point a committee' to 'estimate the table expenses, house rent, 
and fuel, of a married preacher, and thus their support is en- 
tirely under the control of laymen. If they say that five dol- 
lars or five cents are what is sufficient for the support of the 
preacher and his family during the year, he has to submit, he 
has no remedy. Fie is not at all sure of his salary, he is not 
sure that they will estimate half enough to support his family, 

• nor that he shall receive it when estimated. 

But while the power of withholding is with the people, and 
none are legally bound to pay anything for the support of the 
gospel, there is a moral obligation binding on every > member, 

• enforced by the sanctions of heaven, and those who ^withhold 
their portion for the support of the gospel are in the sight of 
God as unjust as though they refused to pay their school in- 
structor or mechanic. Methodism leaves it where God leaves 
it, with the people, and God says that " they which preach the 
gospel should live of the gospel ;" and " the laborer is worthy 
of his hire." 

6. What is paid ^is delivered 'to the stewards and leaders, 



163 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

and by them applied to the objects specified, and thus the pe- 
cuniary concerns of the church are entirely under the control 
of laymen, and subject to their dictation. This system of finan- 
ciering is not only scriptural, but also operates as a check to 
counterbalance the powers of the ministry, and to unite in hap- 
py harmony the vast itinerant machinery. 

II. The Congregational democracy of Methodism is again 
manifest in the reception op members. 

Great care has always been observed in the performance of 
this duty, and what is done at once in some other churches, 
is here performed by a longer and more intricate process. 

1. There must be six months probation. This is done to 
give an opportunity for the church to become acquainted 
with the religious bearing of the candidate, as well as for the 
probationer to become acquainted with them, as also with the 
doctrines, discipline and usages of the church. 

2. Then he must be " recommended by a leader" and with- 
out this the minister cannot receive him. 

3. After this he must be examined " before the church," and 
nothing in the discipline prohibits any member from taking 
part in the examination. 

4. He must have received, the ordinance of baptism pre- 
viously to being admitted into full connection, 

5. He must then "give satisfactory assurances both of the 
correctness of his faith, and his willingness to observe and 
keep the rules of the church." Then, and not till then, the 
preacher may receive him ; not by vote, but by general con- 
sent, for an election would cause divisions, and if there are 
difficulties in the way the case may be laid over tili an adjust- 
ment is made. We perceive then that all the bishops and 
ministers in the church cannot receive a member without the 
recommendation of a leader and the concurrence of the church. 

III. This attribute in the Methodist economy is again ob- 
vious IN THE HOLDING OF CHURCH PROPERTY. 

1.. By the deed of settlement as laid down in. the discipline 



CONGREGATIONAL DEMOCRACY OP METHODI8M. 169 

the churches are held by trustees " for the use of the members 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church." 

2'. These trustees, being themselves generally laymen, by 
the laws of the different states are usually elected by ballot by 
laymen and members of the congregation, so that the church 
property is under the control of the people. 

3. To secure the trustees against loss, the deed of settlement 
provides that if any should advance money on account of said 
premises they shall be authorized to raise the said sum of 
money " by mortgage on the said premises or by selling the 
said premises." 

4. These lay trustees are responsible to laymen, for the 
discipline says, " The board of trustees of every circuit or 
station shall be responsible to the quarterly meeting conference 
of said circuit or station and shall be required to present a re- 
port of its acts during the preceding year." 

Thus the church property is held by lay trustees, usually 
elected by the people, and accountable to laymen, and the 
preachers who have been so unjustly accused in this respect 
by professed reformers have no rights at all in the case except 
to preach according to the original design of those who accu^ 
mulated and own the church property. 

IV. We again perceive this element' in Methodist polity, 

IN THE ADMISSION OF MEN TO THE MINISTRY. This Cannot 

be done without the laity.. 

1. Before a person is permitted to preach he is licensed to ex- 
hort, but before the preacher can grant this, the candidate must 
have the consent of the class of which he is a member, or of the 
leaders meeting. In many of the charges there are no leaders 
meetings held, so that they are brought directly before their 
own class, but in either case the decision is made by laymen. 

2. He cannot then become a preacher without another re- 
commendation from the society or leaders meeting to the 
quarterly conference, which brings him the seconds time un- 
der the control of the-laity. 



170 ^ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

3. Then -in order to receive .license to preach he must be 
brought before the quarterly conference composed almost en* 
tirely of laymen, to be 'examined as to doctrine, discipline, 
gifts, grace and usefulness, and they must decide upon his case, 
which is the third lay ordeal' through which he must pass. 

4. To perpetuate his license it must be renewed annually 
by the quarterly conference of laymen. 

5. When he desires ordination he must be brought again 
before the quarterly conference of laymen, and without their 
recommendation he cannot receive ordination. 

6. And if he desires admission into the conference as a 
travelling preacher, he must be recommended by this same 
body of laymen, or fail of admission. Thus the preachers 
originate from the people from first to last, and 'all the annual 
conferences with the travelling and local preachers in the 
church, with all the presiding elders, and all the bishops at 
their head, with all their "extensive powers," cannot license 
a preacher, without the consent of the laity. This should be 
remembered in connection with the powers of the episcopacy 
because the bishop always' sends to the people their own min- 
isters, and not one of his own constituting,' for none would 
have been preachers unless laymen had made them such, 

V. The Congregational democracy of Methodism as an in- 
tegral part of its jurisprudence, is again apparent in the trial 
of members. This is done-so far as their guilt or innocence 
is concerned entirely by the members themselves. They, and 
they alone, decide that point, either by the society or a select 
number as distinguished from 'the Episcopal mode 'where 'the 
i l successor of the apostles" without committee or jury decides ; 
as distinguished from the Presbyterial 1 economy where it is 
done by the sessions ; and from ihe Congregational where it 
is done by the whole church, without distinction of interest, 
party, predilection or relationship, friend or foe. The mode 
of trial 'is preferable where the power is equitably balanced 
between ministers and members, where ihe appoints the com- 



CONGREGATIONAL DEMOCRACY OP METHODISM. 171 

mittee, and they decide. Thus we find that the Episcopal and 
Presbyterial powers combined, with all their alledged array 
of potency and despotism cannot expel one member, unless a 
body of laymen pronounce him guilty:; neither can they vote 
in the case, even to give a casting vote. 

VI. This fundamental principle in Methodist economy is 
observable, lastly, in the equity* of tfheir appeals. They 
are had by lay members to the quarterly conference, by local 
preachers to the annual conference, and by travelling preach- 
ers to the general conference ; and the Holy Scriptures doubt- 
less warrant one appeal, and one only. The fifteenth chapter 
of Acts may be cited as evidence, where a number of the Jews 
in the church at Antioch insisted that the Gentile converts 
should be circumcised, and keep the law of Moses. Paul and 
Barnabas controverted this point with them, and as no harmo- 
nious termination of the debate could be had at Antioch, an 
appeal was made to the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. 

. Notwithstanding the above scriptural example, objections 
have sometimes been made to the whole doctrine of appeals, 
founded on the supposition of the Congregationalists and Inde- 
pendents that every worshipping assembly is a church,but we 
find instances where several of them in the aggregate are cal- 
led the church. The churches of Jerusalem were -called the 
church. Acts 8, 1, " And at that time there was a :gredt per- 
secution against the church which was at Jerusalem." 11, 
22, "Then tidings of these things came untothe ears of the 
church which was in Jerusalem." 15, 4, "And when they 
were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church." 
But it should be remembered that Jerusalem was a populous 
city, that its inhabitants numbered over &, .million, that when 
destroyed by the Roman army as they were assembled to keep 
the passover, it contained upwards of two millions. It should 
be recollected that there were nearly five hundred Jewish syn- 
agogues, that in this great city three thousand were' converted 
in a day, Acts 2, 41 and five thousand in another Acts 4, 4, 



172 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

and afterward " multitudes?' were added, and there is good 
reason to believe that there were, in Methodist parlance, not 
less than twenty circuits and stations, supplied with ministers 
on that presiding elders district. Now it would be inconsist- 
ent to suppose with Congregationalists and Independents, that 
all the Christians in Jerusalem worshipped in one assembly 
when there were as it is thought fifty thousand of them, and 
when they met to worship in private houses, chambers and up- 
per rooms, aud that so many of the apostles and elders remain- 
ed to preach to them. So also in the church at Corinth the 
apostle addresses them in the singular in 1 Cor. 1, 2, and in 
the plural in 1 Cor. 14, 34, shewing that there were several 
worshipping assemblies, but one church. The same might be 
inferred of Ephesus from Acts 19, 6, 7, 20. 

But the appealed case was from Antioch, where the whole 
district is called a church, to Jerusalem the court of appellate 
jurisdiction. This district is supposed to consist of about 
twelve charges, with ministers, embracing the city and its 
environs ; at least it is thought that eight can be reckoned 
with certainty, viz : men of Cyprus and men of Cyrene preah- 
ing at Antioch mentioned Acts 11, 20, making in all not less 
than four ; then Barnabas ver. 22, 24, which makes five ; to 
which add Paul and other teachers ver. 27, 28, making eight 
in the aggregate, and even beside there were mentioned of 
those who were u teaching and preaching the word" many 
others also ver. 35 ; and yet all these worshipping assemblies 
are called the church which removes the chief corner stone of 
Independency, and levels all their arguments in the dust. 

To the decision of this appealed case the churches submitted, 
Acts 16, 4, and thus left the clearest evidence to the end of 
time that a combination of several charges, with their minis- 
ters form a church, and that the combined wisdom of two or 
more ecclesiastical bodies, is so much superior to that of a 
single isolated body, that an appeal may be made from one to 
the other. This doctrine of one appeal is precisely the plan 



CONGREGATIONAL DEMOCRACY OP METHODISM. 178 

of Methodism, it is believed to be scriptural, and is designed 
to give the greater security against erroneous judgments, by 
an accumulation of wisdom and counsel. 

The Episcopal Church recognizes one appeal for members, 
and thus far follows the " pattern given in the mount;" but 
when we learn that their appeal is from the clergyman to the 
bishop we hesitate ; for if the pastor and all the flock judge 
that a member ought to be expelled, and the bishop hundreds 
of miles off decides otherwise, the question is settled. 

The presbyterial constitution which admits three appeals for 
the same person, the first to the presbytery, then to the synod, 
and then to the general assembly, appears rather cumbersome, 
and goe3 on the other extreme, as far beyond the scripture 
boundray as the Congregational system comes short of it. 

The excellency and fairness of Methodist jurisprudence on 
this point are clearly obvious ; founded as they are on scrip- 
ture, reason and equity ; running to neither extreme, but 
guaranteeing to all its members their inalienable and equal 
rights. Well did the fathers of the church declare that the 
discipline is " founded on the experience of a long series of 
years" and well has a long experience tested its excellence, 
and proved that the government of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is a strong, vigorous, well-balanced system, requiring 
of all mutual self-sacrifice, more of preachers than members, 
and more of bishops than either ; for while all others have an 
appeal to secure them against the fatal consequences of hasty 
proceedings,they have none. 

We see that the pretensions of reformers that the church is 
oppressive are not only ungenerous, but untrue and wicked. 
Their opposition is obviously for effect, for it is without good 
cause ; and when disorganizes hold up one part of the Metho- 
dist economy to reproach and conceal the rest, they do injus- 
tice to the founders of the church, to Mr. Wesley, to the min- 
istry and to all the members. If it is telling the truth it is 
not telling the whole truth. The church has been treated un- 



174 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

justly by them. Could the people see all the parts at once, 
they would perceive that the episcopal and presbyterial pow- 
ers are given for the good of the whole church, that they im- 
part vigour and life and animation to the whole system, that 
without them the church would soon become an anarchy, and 
lose its efficiency ; and they would 'perceive that their powers 
are all guarded by corresponding checks, and poised: by cor- 
responding balances. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



OF DEACONS- IN THE CHURCH OF GOD. 

It is well known by all acquainted with church polity that 
there are two opinions relating to the extent of the functions, 
or jurisdiction of the office of deacon. . The Presbyterial and 
Congregational forms of government confine the office to lay- 
men, who are appointed to distribute alms, and relieve the sick 
and poor ; while Episcopacy maintains that in addition to these 
duties they were regular: minister's of the word. That the 
ministerial office was connected with an attendance upon the 
pecuniary business of the church may doubtless appear obvious, 
from a consideration of thet following facts. 

1. They were set apart to the office of deacon in the church 
of God by prayer and imposition of hands. Acts 6, 6, " And 
when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. 

2. They w&r&full of fai/ih and power and the Holy Ghost, 
and these were the principal qualifications for ministers of the 
word, and beingthus prepared they went directly at the call 
of God. 

3. They wrought miracles. Acts 6, 8, " And Stephen, full 
of faith and power; did great wonders and miracles among the 
people." Now- the working. ; of miracles was doubtless restric- 
ted to the apostles and public teachers, which proves that they 
were ministers. 

4. Those same deacons who had been ordained, filled with 
the Holy Ghost, and had performed miracles, also preached 
the gospel. Stephen's sermon is recorded at great length in 
the seventh chapter of Acts ; and in the eighth chapter, and 
fifth verse, we, read, "Then Philip went down. to the city of * 



176 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

Samaria, and preached Christ unto them." Therefore as 
Stephen and Philip had just been ordained deacons, and went 
directly and preached the gospel, we infer that they were min- 
isters. 

5. We nowhere read of their preaching the gospel till after 
they were thus ordained, neither do the scriptures declare 
that they were ever ordained to any higher office, therefore 
we infer that they preached the gospel by virtue of their or- 
dination as deacons. 

6. They doubtless baptized, as shewn in Acts 8, 12, " But 
when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning 
the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were 
baptized, both men and women." These scriptures prove 
that deacons were not merely laymen, whose duties were con- 
fined to the service of tables alone ; but were also successful 
ministers of the New Testament carrying the light of truth to 
a perishing world. 

7. They appear to be recognized as ministers by Paul where 
he associates them with bishops or presbyters, and speaks of 
one and then of the other consecutively. He gives some of 
the same directions to both as being " the husband of one 
wife," " not given to wine," etc. 

8. Ecclesiastical history brings confirmatory evidence of the 
same fact. It reads as follows: "The church was, undoubt- 
edly, provided from the beginning with inferior ministers or 
deacons. No society can be without its servants, and still 
less such societies as those of the first Christians were. And 
it appears not only probable but evident, that the young men, 
who carried away the dead bodies of Ananias and Sapphira, 
were the subordinate ministers, or deacons, of the church of 
Jerusalem, who attended the apostles to execute their orders." 
Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Vol. 1, pp. 38, Baltimore Edit. 

9. The primitive Fathers in their epistles, recognize dea- 
cons as ministers of the word. St. Ignatius in his epistle to 
the Magnesians, after mentioning the presbyters, says ; " And 



DEACONS IN THE CHURCH OF GOD. 177 

your deacons, most dear to me, being intrusted with the min- 
istry of Jesus Christ." In his epistle to the Philadelphians he 
observes : " As concerning Philo, the deacon of Cilicia he 
still ministers unto me in the word of God." To the Tral- 
lians, he says " The deacons also, as being the ministers of 
the mysteries of Jesus Christ, must by all means please all : 
for they are not the ministers of meat and drink, but of the 
church of God." Polycarp to the Philippians says: "Let 
the deacons be blameless, in his sight, as ministers of God in 
Christ and not of men." 

10. Though they exercised their office by preaching and 
baptizing, they belonged to a lower order in the ministry than 
presbyters, and it would seem to be introductory to that order. 
1 Tim. 3, 10, "And let these also first be proved, then let 
them use the office of a deacon being found blameless." This 
previous training as a deacon is also intimated in his instruct- 
ions relative to the qualifications of a presbyter in 1 Tim. 3. 6. 
" Not a novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the 
condemnation of the devil." 

One of the most weighty objections urged against the con- 
nection of the ministerial office with that of the " service of 
tables," in the order of deacon, is found in Dr. Miller's "Es- 
say on the nature and Duties of the office of Ruling Elder," 
pp. 227. " The sphere of duty to which they were appointed, 
was one which the apostles declared they could not fulfil with- 
out leaving the word of God to serve tables." From this the 
learned doctor infers that the latter work is incompatible with 
the gospel ministry. But this brings to light one of the clear- 
est evidences in favor of its being introductory to it, because 
this had been one part of the very business of the apostles 
themselves, to give to the poor, not only while Judas carried 
the bag, but up to this very time ; and it might have contin- 
ued so, had not the numbers of believers who were converted 
on the day of pentecost, and afterward, so increased, that it was 

12 



178 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

necessary to have the assistance of deacons to attend to their 
financial affairs. 

In the church of England deacons receive ordination by 
the imposition of the hands of a bishop, and are thereby au- 
thorized to preach the gospel, assist in the sacrament of the 
Lord's supper, and perform other duties appertaining to the sa- 
cred office, except consecrating the elements, and pronouncing 
absolution, and none can be ordained to the order of a deacon 
till he is twenty-three years of age, except by dispensation 
from the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

In the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country dea- 
cons may be ordained when twenty-one 3 r ears of age, they 
are "subject to the regulations of the bishop" and are author- 
ized to perform similar duties to those of the Church of Eng- 
land. 

In the Methodist Episcopal Church the candidate for deacons 
orders is recommended by the quarterly conference, and ap- 
proved by the annual conference, thus following the pattern 
of the ancient church, where the seven deacons were selected 
by the disciples, and approved and ordained by the apostles. 
And as the apostle says : 1 Tim. 3, 10, " And let these also 
first be proved ; then let them use the office of a deacon, being 
found blameless;" so he is proved, first, as an exhorter, and 
then as a preacher, during a probation, before he can be or- 
dained to the order of deacon. 

Though this was the lowest ecclesiastical order, it was of 
divine appointment, which should teach us that the lower offi- 
ces are of equal consequence with the higher, that ministers 
at best are but servants, and that to serve their Lord Jesus 
Christ, and his church, should be their constant business, and 
their greatest delight. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



OP LAY OFFICERS IN THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The ministerial office is the most important in the world. 
It involves interests and responsibilities connected with time 
and eternity ; the consequences of fidelity to its high require- 
ments reach onward forever ; and well did the apostle exclaim, 
"who is sufficient for these things." Candidates for this im- 
portant office are required to " give attendance to reading, to 
exhortation, to doctrine," to " meditate upon these things," 
and give themselves wholly to them. 

Ministers need time to prepare efficiently for the services 
of the pulpit, as well as for secret devotion ; they need time 
for private instruction and advice to those who request or need 
it, and to attend funerals as well as to preach the gospel in the 
great congregation, and to administer the sacraments. But 
beside all this the sick are to be visited, wanderers are to be 
reclaimed, the incorrigible tried and expelled, the negligent 
admonished, irregularities are to be corrected, scandals re- 
moved, and differences reconciled. The exercise of whole- 
some discipline is not only important but essential to the purity 
of the church ;- without it there may be a congregation, but 
no church ; and this spiritual oversight should not only be 
general but particular, reaching' in detail to every individual. 
in the body ecclesiastical. 

But who can perform all these arduous and multitudinous 
services'? Who shall take not only the general, but special 
supervision- of a great army of immortals, scattered in the 
distance over a ciiy or town ? It is not only morally but phys- 



180 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

ically impossible for the minister to do it. However active 
and diligent he may be, he cannot watch over the whole flock, 
as the interests of the church require ; and be every where, 
and know and do every thing. Hence to supply this lack al- 
most every denomination has lay officers, among whom 
these responsibilities are divided, and who are to assist the 
pastor in the performance of these arduous duties. 

In the Episcopal Church the Vestry men and Church War- 
dens perform those functions, which greatly assist the clergy- 
man, yet it is too true that with them very little ecclesiastical 
discipline is exercised. 

In the Presbyterian Church the ruling elders in conjunction 
with the pastor are the legitimate governors of the church, 
while the deacons act in the department assigned to them. 

The Congregational Churches have deacons, but as all con- 
troversies are brought before the whole church they have a 
less number of lay officers, and less need for them. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church have more of them than 
others, from the peculiar structure of the government and from 
the fact that they have in the estimation of some, more strictness 
of discipline. Those lay officers are Leaders, Stewards and 
Exhorters, the necessity for which we shall now proceed to 
examine. 

I. The office-vof class leader or something analogous is 
necessary to take the special charge of every individual in the 
church, and it is the duty of each one to "see each person in 
his class once a week at least," and to superintend their spir- 
itual interests. This the minister who often has the oversight 
of several hundreds cannot possibly do, except by proxy, and 
thus the leaders are the preachers' assistants. The place where 
the leader is expected to see his class is ordinarily in the class 
meeting, where every member should feel himself conscien- 
tiously bound to attend, unless detained by sickness or other 
unavoidable cause, for it would be unjust to compel the faith- 
ful leader to go a great distance every week to visit delinquents, 



LAY OFFICERS IN THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 181 

or break the good rules of the church which were made for 
the benefit of the members. 

The following reasons in favor of class meetings will shew 
the necessity of class leaders. 

1. Class meetings or conference meetings, or meetings of 
Christian fellowship, as names are of little consequence, have 
been held among spiritual persons in all ages. Mai. 3, 16. 
" Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another." 

2. The scriptures abound in examples in favor of class 
meetings. The Psalmist exclaims " Come and hear, all ye 
that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my 
soul." But how do we know that he alludes to class meeting ? 
First; because none are invited but those who "fear God," 
and, secondly ; because he is going to relate " what the Lord 
had done for his soul." Arriving at class he says ; " As far 
as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our trans- 
gressions from us." Matt. 13, 36, "Then Jesus sent the 
multitude away, and went into the house : and his disciples 
came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the 
tares of the field." Here he met them, alone, after the mul- 
titude retired. 

3. The injunctions of our Lord and his apostles presuppose 
something like class meetings. James 5, 16, " Confess your 
faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may 
be healed :" but the church must be together, to make and 
receive confession. See also, Matt. 18, 17. 

4. The doors were shuL John 20, 19, " Then the same 
day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the 
doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for 
fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith 
unto them, Peace be unto you." Ver. 26, And after eight 
days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them ; 
then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, 
and said, Peace be unto you." Here the sacred historian 
specially notices that particular usage of the church in those 



182 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

days ; but we are not informed in the Acts of the apostles 
whether Rhoda was a doorkeeper, though the Psalmist says : 
" 1 had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than 
to dwell in the tents of wickedness," 

5. Class meetings are expedient. They have been held in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church for more than a century, 
with great success ; and are found to be the strength and life 
and hope of the church. They have a tendency to bring the 
worship of God directly to all the members, to increase a 
sense of personal responsibility, to promote brotherly love, 
and save the soul. They tend to throw the helpless spirit on 
the only merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, to foster a constant 
and healthy spirit of religious activity, and to keep the fire 
of reformation continually burning. 

6. Class meetings are necessary for the support of the gos- 
pel. For financial purposes they were originally instituted, 
and for those purposes, among others, they are still retained. 

But if we have class meetings we must have class leaders. 
for the preacher with his multiplied calls cannot possibly ex- 
amine each member weekly, and hence the necessity of this 
class of lay officers in the church. 

II. Stewards may next be considered ; and as names are 
not material, they discharge some of the duties of the ancient of- 
fice of deacon which appertain to receiving and expending the 
funds of the church, providing elements for the Lord's sup- 
per, the distribution of the bread and water at love feasts, 
etc. The office or something similar is doubtless of divine 
institution, in order that the preacher may have as little as 
possible to do with temporal affairs, and the words of scrip- 
ture apply to them 1 Cor. 4, 2, " It is required in stewards, 
that a man be found faithful ;" and our Lord pronounces a 
blessing upon the " faithful and wise steward." 

III. Exhorters may also be considered as lay officers, in- 
vested with license to hold meetings for prayer and exhorta- 
tion ; as saith the apostle Rom. 12, 6, 8, "Having then gifts 



LAY OFFICERS IN THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 183 

differing according to the grace that is given to us" he addp, 
" he that exhorteth let him wait on exhortation." Heb. 3, 13, 
" But exhort one another daily." This office may also be con- 
sidered as introductory to that of the ministry, as the apostle 
says ; 1. Tim. 3, 16, " And let these also first be proved ; then 
let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless." 

These lay officers are very great and important helpers in 
the work of God ; to dispense with them would be impossible, 
without immense loss, and the more efficient their instrumen- 
tality, the more successful can be the ministry of the gospel. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



OP THE PHILOSOPHY OF ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 

The question is often proposed ; What is the best form of 
church polity ? The answer may be of difficult solution as it 
frequently depends on circumstances ; as whether the church 
is intent on missionary enterprise and the conquest of the 
world, or merely on preserving order and virtue in an already 
well regulated religious community ; also on the intelligence 
and piety of the people, as well as the fidelity and qualifica- 
tions of ecclesiastical rulers. All the forms of government in 
Protestant Churches may answer the purposes for which they 
were designed, viz ; to unite the hands and hearts and coun- 
sels an dinfluence of the brotherhood together on earth, and 
finally by divine grace, to fit them for heaven. It is found 
on close and candid examination that in nearly all the Prot- 
estant churches in this country there is a balance of power to 
prevent encroachment : they frequently resemble the edifice, 
uncouth and unshapely in the distance, but when minutely sur- 
veyed in all its parts, it is found that there is symmetry with- 
in, and adaptation to the convenience of the family. In con- 
sidering the philosophy of ecclesiastical government it is pro- 
posed to do it, first ; by comparison, 

I. Of the excellencies and defects of each form of 

CHURCH POLITY. 

I. The excellencies of episcopacy first claim our con- 
sideration. 

1. As pure episcopacy as found in the Papal Church is ana- 
logous to monarchy, it possesses some* of the attributes of that 
form of government, hence it is the strongest polity in the world, 
because it concentrates the strength of the church to a com^ 
mon centre. 



PHILOSOPHY OF ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 185 

2. If the strongest it is most liable to be perpetual and un- 
alterable, other circumstances being equal, for it should be re- 
membered that the churches which have withstood the ravages 
of time, and the revolutions of empires, may award much of 
their perpetuity to the potency of their governments. 

3 . This form of government saves the church from the di- 
visions which are so common, where all the decisions in church 
trials etc., are left to the people. 

4. It is thought too that this mode of conducting discipline 
imparts a ministerial gravity and consequent influence, so need- 
ful to success, and which could never be realized in other 
forms of government. 

II. The defects of episcopacy are obvious. 

1. Pure Episcopacy having no corresponding balance of 
power like all monarchies is liable to terminate in tyranny. 
When thus manifest in its purity as in Popery, it tends to despo- 
tism ; but when it has its restraining influences thown around 
it by way of a balance of power as in the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the United States, it cannot in such a free country 
become very oppressive. There is little serious danger to be 
apprehended by ecclesiastical oppression where the unholy 
alliance of church and state is unknown, and cannot coerce 
obedience by the civil power. 

2. Episcopacy may tend to depress the membership of the 
church, and as they do not participate in its government, they 
may become indifferent to its interests. 

3. It is thought that it gives an opportunity for the encroach- 
ment of the clergy over the laity. Although few in this coun- 
try may aim at ecclesiastical intrusion, yet as laws are for the 
disobedient, and as human nature is the same in ministers as 
in other men, many suppose that the system of ecclesiastical 
polity is the safest which excludes and obviates all those ap- 
prehended evils. 

III. The excellencies of Presbyterial government 
are manifest as follows : 



186 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

1. It presents a harrier, in a great measure, against minis- 
t.erial encroachment, for every pastor has a bench of ruling 
elders who are intrusted with the government of the church, 
and without their counsel nothing can be done. He is merely 
chairman of the body, and cannot receive or expel a member, 
or carry any measure without their concurrence. Should he 
engage in any ambitious or sinister plan of operations for his 
own benefit, he could not conveniently accomplish his de- 
signs. These ruling elders mingle in all their judicatories 
from the church sessions to the general assembly, and thus 
form a strong barrier against clerical encroachment. 

2. The Presbyterial form of church polity secures to the 
minister the counsel and support of an inteligent class of men, 
taken from the body of the church ; and thus the interests of the 
whole are consulted, and these counsellors having formed their 
plans can advocate them so as to secure the concurrence of 
the whole church. This is frequently convenient and safe for 
the minister as well as the people. 

3. Another excellence in this form of ecclesiastical organi- 
zation may be found in its plan of representation by delegation 
of executive power, as contradistinguished from that of having 
all the members, learned and unlearned, wise and unwise, ex- 
perienced and inexperienced, indiscriminately come together, 
to decide every question. All differences being left to a select 
number of experienced and judicious men, they are not sub- 
ject to the caprice of an excited popular assembly. 

4. This method of conducting the administration of disci- 
pline provides a remedy for the redress of grievances by ap- 
peal, when unjustly expelled, which does not appear in the 
Congregational form of polity. 

5. The Presbyterial constitution secures more despatch for 
the time being than when it comes into the hands of the whole 
body of the church members. The more minds there are to 
be consulted, the more perplexity and delay. 

6. This mode of ecclesiastical government provides great 



PHILOSOPHY OF ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 187 

facilities for union and efficiency of action in carrying for- 
ward the enterprises of the church. They are already or- 
ganized and prepared for duty, and are brought together sev- 
eral times each year in the presbytery, then in the synod and 
general assembly ; forming a strong bond of union and co-op- 
eration, and with this machinery, constructed in all its perfec- 
tion they are fitted for action. 

IV. The DEFECTS OF THE PRESBYTERIAL FORM of CCCleS- 

iastical polity appear ; 

1. In the appointment of ruling elders for life. They are 
not the representatives of what the church is now, but of what 
it ^might have been twenty or thirty years ago, when they 
were elected. True they can be removed for crime, but it is 
very difficult to do so for mere unfitness for the office. 

2. It is thought by Congregationalists that this system tends to 
create and foster a dictatorial spirit in the ruling elders toward 
the residue of the members ; that while it gives them too high 
a conceit of themselves, it depresses the members as inferiors, 
induces them to feel little concern for the interests of the church 
and prevents their exercising the talents they have. 

3. The Presbyterial form of church government recognizes 
so many appeals that the incorrigible cannot be brought to 
final justice and expulsion without very great inconvenience. 

4. In several prominent instances after members have been 
expelled by the lower judicatories and have sustained their 
appeals in the higher, the appellants have not been restored by 
the church or session which censured them, and thus they were 
^virtually expelled after all, and their privilege of appeal has 
been useless. 

5. This form of church polity requires great precisencss in 
the management of discipline. The process must be arranged 
according to the perplexing and intricate forms and usages of 
the presbyterial directory, and is subject to the inspection of 
the higher judicatories, and liable to be remanded back on ac- 
count of informality ; besides this, every item of testimony 



18S ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

must be written in full, for a failure here would be fatal ; and 
the greatest exactness is necessary to carry a case through the 
several tribunals. 

6. Much of the precious time of the ministers and ruling 
elders is wasted, for several months and sometimes years are 
required to carry a case through all the judicatories, keeping 
the session in suspense, and the church in commotion, as they 
are liable time after time to be cited to appear by their com- 
missioners, before the higher tribunals. 

7. This mode of conducting discipline requires extensive 
travelling, for the general assembly has jurisdiction from the 
Rio Grande to the Aroostook, and these long and tedious jour- 
neys require great expense in providing for the commission- 
ers to and from the general assembly, without a corresponding 
benefit to the church or any of its members. 

8. The Presbyterial form of ecclesiastical polity tends to cre- 
ate a cold and formal mode of proceeding, for much of the busi- 
ness in the several judicatories is mere disputation and con- 
troversy, drawn out in prescribed forms, consuming much time, 
occasioning protracted discussion, leading the mind from the 
plain and brief scriptural mode of proceeding to the abstract 
forms and usages of the Presbyterial directory, and having a 
deleterious effect on piety and devotion to God. 

9. On the whole Congregationalists, who principally urge 
mostof the above objections denominate it, a cumbersome, bung- 
ling form, so loaded down with appeals, and involved in tech- 
nicalities, that it is unsuitable for church government. 

10. But after all, one of its worst features in its practical 
operations is this, that the ruling elders are almost always related 
to one or the other party, in church trials, and are often person- 
ally interested ; yet this does not disqualify them as ecclesias- 
tical rulers, and judges in the case. 

V. The EXCELLENCIES OF THE CoXGREGATIOXAL FORM of 

church government may be reckoned as follows : 

1. In their freedom from ministerial oppression. There can 



PHILOSOPHY OP ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 189 

be no possible way for a pastor to become independent of, and 
superior to, the people ; or for the people to become in any 
way dependent on the pastor, without breaking over all the 
rules of their church order. 

2. Congregationalism is free from all those undue forms and 
technicalities with which the Presbyterian Church is burdened, 
and, in the decision of all questions, it can substitute in its 
place reason, and common sense. 

3. This form of ecclesiastical polity can have the benefit of 
beginning and ending every church trial in the neighborhood 
where the facts are all known, and where all the circumstan- 
ces in the case are before them. 

4. The Congregational government guaranties a trial by 
the very individuals who know best the various shades of guilt 
and innocence, as they are all members of the same commu- 
nion. 

VI. The defects of Congregational polity are obvi- 
ous in view of the following considerations : 

1. It is more exposed to contending factions than that of other 
forms of government. They recognize no common standard o f 
doctrine or discipline, except so far as each separate and insula- 
ted congregation shall put its own private interpretation on the 
scriptures, and resolve to adopt one or another creed, as they 
severally please, without control or check from any other tri- 
bunal ; so that they have no common bond of union to bind 
them together. Thus brotherly love is destroyed, church is ar- 
rayed against church, brother against brother, each has " his 
doctrine," " his psalm," and the distracted state of the Congre- 
gational churches in New England is a standing commentary 
on the tendency of that form of ecclesiastical polity. The ele- 
ments of its own dissolution are working, and all New Eng- 
land feels its effects. Boston the cradle of liberty, the home 
of the pilgrim, where Congregationalism was once established 
by law, and had no rival, even Boston, has nearly abandoned 
orthodoxy, and given the ground to the Unitarians. 



190 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

2. This form of ecclesiastical polity has a tendency to de- 
press and enslave the ministry. The people and not the pas- 
tors are to be the judges of what is true in theology, and right 
in practice; and thus the ministry are deprived of that in- 
fluence, and noble independence of mind which should always 
characterize the true ambassadors for Christ. The popular 
favor, the caprice of the multitude, however wrong or vicious 
or heterodox must be considered ; and when the majority of 
the congregation become corrupt in doctrine, dissolute in dis- 
cipline or sinful in practice, the pastor must either go with the 
multitude in their downward course, or rebuke their sins, and 
seek another call. 

3. This mode of government tends to render the gospel pow- 
erless. It takes away the sanctity and dignity of the gospel 
ministry ; hence we hear Congregationalists say ; " the minis- 
try have not as much influence over the public mind as they 
once had." This may be the case in the Congregational 
Churches, and the reason is obvious, they are bound down by 
the caprice of the public, and then required to work. 

4. This system of church polity is defective in that it cuts 
off ail hope by appeal. This is believed to be unscriptural as 
well as subject to the evil consequences of all those hasty pro- 
ceedings which an appeal could remedy ; and as the British 
constitution recognizes a house of lords and commons, and the 
French the chamber of peers and deputies, as almost every lib- 
eral government has two legislative branches, and as the Con- 
gress of the United States, and all the state legislatures but 
two, have a senate and house of representatives, or something 
equivalent, to guard against the evil consequences of precipi- 
tate action, subjecting each bill to a critical investigation by 
two distinct bodies ; so it is thought that every case involving 
the sacred rights and eternal interests of men, should be sub- 
ject to a revision by a tribunal having appellate jurisdiction. 

If an excited, inflamed popular assembly, under the influ- 
ence of an artful and eloquent member or. influential pastor. , 



PHILOSOPHY OF ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 191 

shall make one of its number the victim of popular resentment, 
and expel him; he has no remedy. Although the trial was 
unfairly gotten up, and the decision oppressive, he must lie 
down under it and suffer. In all other forms of government 
he may have a rehearing by appeal to a higher tribunal, but 
here he has none. 

5. This form of church government is not promotive of ef- 
ficient cooperation for action and enterprise. When the opin- 
ions of all are to be consulted there will be divisions, these will 
naturally grow wider, and as men almost always incline to 
preconceived opinions, controversies are engendered, and the 
contending factions expend their strength against each other. 
Suppose we have a company of soldiers on the Independent or 
Congregational plan, where each must be consulted as to the 
mode of attack, time to advance or retreat, etc. , of what use 
would they be in the hour of battle, with as many minds as 
men % But range them where all are moved by one, concen- 
trate their energies to one point, have them act in concert, and 
all strike at once, and they carry consternation and death 
through all the ranks of the enemy. 

6. The Congregational mode of conducting church trials 
is thought by many to be the most objectionable feature in 
their whole economy, because it brings the whole church, at 
once, into the controversy, whether relatives of one of the 
parties or not, whether interested in the affair or otherwise. 
This is as unwise in ecclesiastical government, as it would be 
to summon the whole mass of the male population to be judges 
in a civil suit. No oppression is more dreadful, no tyranny 
more unrelenting, than that of an excited popular assembly, 
composed indiscriminately of old and young and intelligent 
and foolish, when brought to bear against the victim of their 
resentment. The tempestuous irregularities and confusion 
often inseparable from such a scene unfits them to give a so- 
ber, discreet and prudent judgment ; whereas a committee of. 



192 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

pious, intelligent and unbiassed men, judiciously selected from 
the mass, might render evenhanded justice. 

7. This evil is frequently increased from the well known 
practical difficulty of getting the experienced and prudent 
part of the church, — who dislike controversy, to attend 
the church trials, and give their sober judgment ; whereas 
the inexperienced, the interested, the relatives and friends, 
and all the excited part of the church, being the very ones in- 
capacitated for judgment, make the decision. 

8. It is thought by some that this lax system of popular man- 
agement in church polity has a deleterious and disorganizing 
influence on the good regulations of all the churches in the 
Protestant world ; tending to ecclesiastical anarchy, confusion, 
and consequent annihilation. . 

It should in fairness be observed here, that in practice they 
sometimes vary so far from pure Congregationalism as to 
have a committee appointed, which is doubtless a great and 
manifest improvement in church trials, and more fully meets 
the ends of justice and good government. 

From the above remarks in this chapter, we learn the fol- 
lowing practical lesson : 

1. That all forms of church government have their excellen- 
cies as well as defects, and that in churches as in individuals 
when we see a weakness at one point, we may frequently look 
for corresponding strength in another. 

2. Learn not to pass sweeping censures on any as a whole, 
for all have their good qualities. 

3. We learn not to set ourselves up as the church, to the 
exclusion of others, for they may possibly have some better 
points in their economy than we have, and what is of infinitely 
more importance than all the rest, they may have more piety. 

II. We proceed in the second place to demonstrate the 

TENDENCIES OF EACH FORM OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

I. The tendencies of power are to accumulation. Wheth- 



PHILOSOPHY OP ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 1$3 

er in church or state, if unrestrained by counteracting influ- 
ences it will increase. 

1. When Episcopacy first commenced in the world prob- 
ably none of its adherents thought that it would finally grow 
into Popery ; but it proceeded step by step, and as it advanced 
it drew around itself the power of the pen, the pulpit and the 
forum, as well as the sword, till we find it the scarlet colored 
beast sitting on the seven hills. 

2. When the Presbyterial form of government was brought 
to Scotland, and from thence to America, it is believed that. 
no one thought that the office of ruling elder was any thing 
more than one of expediency, and of modern invention, for 
the regulation and good government of the church ; but now 
Dr. Miller claims for it a scriptural origin, and an apostolic 
practice ; and declares that ruling elders are not laymen but 
have a divine right to govern the church. 

3. It is thought that the tendency of Congregational polity 
is to give individual lioerty at the expense of the great gen- 
eral good ; to loosen the bands of society, to beget laxness in 
discipline, and inefficiency and anarchy in government. It is 
believed that its history demonstrates this truth ; and that the 
reason why it is not numbered with the things that were, is ; 
because of the piety and intelligence of its members, more 
than from the conservative influences of its economy. 

4. As the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is an amalgam, or union of the three regular forms, let us 
survey its tendency. Some have supposed that the power 
was wholly in the hands of the bishops and presbyters, with- 
out a counteracting influence with the people, but if this were 
the case it would become more and more absolute. As this 
is the fair test to demonstrate the balance of power, we will 
now proceed to examine it. 

1. When the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized 

in 1784, the rule was that no person should be ordained a 

superintendent, elder or deacon without the voice of a ma- 

13 



194 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

jority of the conference and the consent and imposition of the 
hands of a superintendent; and thus the bishop had the veto 
power on all the ordinations in the church, which power is 
now discontinued. 

2. Then it was the office of a superintendent " To receive 
appeals from the preachers and people, and decide them." 
Their decision was then final, as it is now in the Church of 
England, and in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Uni- 
ted States ; but this prerogative has long since been taken 
away, and the -government has become more democratic. 

3. Another rule then was " Print nothing without the ap- 
probation of one or other of the superintendents :" and thus 
the press was measurably under their control, but it is other- 
wise now. 

4. As to ministers in this church they once had a right 
under certain circumstances, to set members, back on triaL: 
but that prerogative does not now belong to them. 

5. They once had a right to decide that members were 
guilty, and expel them without a committee, and if they 
pleased without form of trial or evidence ; but now they must 
have a committee, and they cannot even vote in the case. 

6. They originally possessed the power to appoint all the 
stewards ; but now they can only nominate, and the quarterly 
conference appoint them. 

These examples, with more that might be added, evince the 
tendencies of Methodist polity, and as despotic governments 
invariably grow more absolute, so a well balanced constitution 
may grow more mild. Should it be said that this government 
is in the hands of bishops and preachers, it is answered that 
there must be a corresponding and counteracting, influence 
somewhere, which entirely preponderates, and overbalances 
it, because the government is growing more mild and demo- 
cratic. 

II. The tendencies of power are to extremes. These 
extremes are Popery and bigotry on one. side and misrule and 



PHILOSOPHY OP ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT. 195 

anarchy on the other. Power unrestrained is progressive, it' 
increases ad infinitum; if in the hands of the nobility and 
priesthood, in national establishments, it becomes tyrannical, 
and is always dangerous : if entirely in the hands of the' 
people, and if unrestrained by any checks, it becomes weak, 
and inefficient, and powerless. 

We here learn the importance of a well balanced Ecclesi- 
astical government : 

1. To -compete with Popery. The man of sin is marshalled 
and in the field. He is on the alert, acting night and day, 
in public and in private, secretly and openly, by artifice and 
argument, by persuasion and by the sword. The interests of 
religion are worthy of strong, vigorous, scriptural govern- 
ments ; and the exigencies of. the the times demand them. 

2. Vigor is important to assail infidelity with success, to 
combat sin of every kind, and to spread light and salvation 
over the world. 

3. A good vigorous government is useful to preserve a 
healthy action in the ministry, to keep them in the place where 
God designed they should act, to prevent them from being, 
exalted by pride on one side, and from becoming the mere 
tools and slaves of a fickle populace on the other. 

4. Energy in government is necessary for members, to 
preserve the ancient landmarks, and to transmit pure doctrine 
and a righteous polity to posterity. 

5. It is needful to the whole church, to render it perpetual,, 
aoc! .that it may be stable and pure and holy. . 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



OF CHURCH CONSTITUTIONS. 



There can be no ecclesiastical order without ecclesiastical 
law and regulation. In order to prevent sudden changes and 
revolutions from the influence of aspirants for place in the 
church, and to render a code of laws stable and permanent, as 
well as to secure uniformity of opinion among those who join 
a certain communion, the most of the churches have estab- 
lished constitutions, or systems of fundamental laws, to which 
all the rules are to be conformed, and beyond which they 
must not pass. 

Constitutions have been established in the most enlightened 
and liberal civil governments, and they render them more 
permanent and secure against the encroachments of lawless 
tyrants on the one side, and against the unsurpations of aspi- 
ring demagogues, at the head of a reckless rabble on the other. 
Without these checks against the growing power and popular- 
ity of ambitious men, innovation would succeed innovation, 
and change would follow change, till their whole code of civil 
jurisprudence would be driven from their ancient foundations. 
In savage and barbarous countries they have, no security for 
person or property, and no stable prosperity ; because they 
are restrained by no constitutional enactments, and every petty 
tyrant overleaps the boundaries of law. In those countries 
where religion is unhappily established by law, the civil and 
ecclesiastical constitutions are blended ; but in this country 
as they are separate each church has the privilege of adopting 
such internal regulations as they think best, only so as not to 
encroach upon the rights of others. 



CHURCH CONSTITUTIONS. 197 

Thus the churches generally have wisely chosen to estab- 
lish constitutions of their own, and have made special pro- 
vision to render their institutions perpetual, by thus guarding 
themselves against innovation. 

In the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, 
the 9th article of the constitution reads as follows : " This 
constitution shall be unalterable, unless in general convention 
by the church in a majority of the dioceses which may have 
adopted the same ; and all alterations shall be first proposed 
in one general convention, and made known to the several 
diocesan conventions before they shall be finally agreed to, 
or ratified in the ensuing general convention." Thus the 
constitution cannot be changed by the fluctuations of popular 
opinion in less time than three years at the shortest, which 
gives a fair opportunity to canvass and weigh the reasons with 
cool deliberation. 

In the Presbyterian Church they have guarded their con- 
stitution as follows : " Before any overtures or regulations pro- 
posed by the assembly to be established as constitutional rules, 
shall be obligatory on the churches, it shall be necessary to 
transmit them to all the presbyteries, and to receive the re- 
turns of at least a majority of them, in writing, approving 
thereof." Here we perceive that before any change can be 
affected a long time and severe criticism is the ordeal through 
which it must pass. 

The Congregational Churches have no constitution or com- 
mon standard of discipline to unite them in a common brother- 
hood ; but each church adopts such rules as the majority please. 
While each of the other denominations suppose that the whole 
church in the aggregate, either by themselves or their repre- 
sentatives, have more wisdom to decide on truth than a single 
isolated church ; the Congregationalists contend that each 
church should make its own laws independent of all others. 
While they protest against the tyranny of synods and confer- 
ees and conventions, they themselves have to submit to the 



198 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

majority in f their own congregation ; and this oppression is 
frequently greater than the other, with the additional difficulty 
of creating contending factions, by having every point in doc- 
trine and discipline brought directly into every church, and 
discussed and decided in a popular assembly. 

-A sketch of the history of the Congregational church mt 
New England forcibly illustrates the necessity of a church 
constitution. 

At the first court of election held in Massachusetts in 1631 
a law was passed " that from that time, no person should be 
admitted to the freedom of the body politic but such as were 
members of some of the churches within its limits." This law 
was unfortunate as it induced men to become members of the 
church ; and as they could not be such without a profession 
of religion, they were strongly tempted to make that profess- 
ion without the reality, while those who would not do so for 
conscience sake were rejected, and keenly felt the injustice of 
their privation, insomuch that they immediately endeavored 
to overthrow the existing order of things. 

This law continued perhaps about thirty years when it was 
enacted that every candidate for the privileges of a freeman 
should produce from the minister of the parish a certificate 
that he was a person o£ orthodox principles, and of honest life 
and conversation. As this change was chiefly in appearance 
only, its influence was hardly felt, and the ministers and 
churches began to sympathize with those men under their dis- 
abilities ; and as they had no constitution to violate, and as 
reforms by the people are always onward, and for the exten- 
sion of privilege, they grew more and more liberal, and low- 
ered the terms of membership in the churches, instead of alter- 
ing the law, and thus admitted men with very little or no 
evidences of piety. 

The next innovation in the progress of reform was the 
half way covenant, made for the convenience of the increa- 
sing numbers by emigration and otherwise who were nonpr<&- 



CHU11CH CONSTITUTIONS. 199 

feasors, and were deprived of their privileges, and specially 
denied the right of baptism for their children which they en- 
joyed in the established churches of ■ the old world. The half 
way covenant provided that men might become members of 
the church without a change of heart, and have their children 
baptized, though they did not come to the Lord's table. This 
was strongly opposed at first, but soon became popular, and 
the great mass set down quietly in their sins, with a deceitful 
hope of heaven, having a place in the church by having their 
children baptized, but without going to the sacrament them- 
selves. 

To complete the extension of privilege about the year 1700, 
they began to infer, in their continued downward course, that 
those who had a right to receive baptism for their children had 
also an equal right to the sacrament, and that it was a conver- 
ting ordinance, whence this new notion spread over the coun- 
try and became Yery popular. Thus the moral energy of 
their whole economy was enfeebled, the members were many 
of them unregenerate worldlings, the discipline was neglected, 
the people slept, while moral and spiritual desolation and 
death overspread the churches. 

Now all these changes could have been prevented, and the 
purity of the church preserved, if they had all adhered to con- 
stitutional enactments ; but as they had no guard against in- 
novation they were carried away by the popular current. The 
want of more permanent success too in the Freewill Baptist 
and some other churches, may be laid, in a measure, to this, 
and not to a lack of piety in the ministry or members. 

This latitudinarian system is what has brought " Philosophi- 
cal Christianity" into Germany, a system of Rationalism 
nearly allied to blank infidelity ; for when the ministers were 
to be ordained they were not required to subscribe to any 
particular doctrines or discipline, but merely to profess faith 
in the Scriptures, and then interpret them to suit themselves. 
It is thought too by many that this laxness has greatly tended 



200 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

to open the way for Unitarianism and other liberalisms in New 
England which have overspread the country. We learn from 
this that as permanency and constancy are so important in re- 
ligious things, it becomes the .duty of every church to sacri- 
iice so much of their individual liberty on the altar of union 
for the general good, as shall unite the strength of the whole, 
and impart to the church that stability and perpetuity, so re- 
quisite for the fulfilment of the great designs contemplated in 
the plan of gospel salvation. 

In the Methodist Episcopal Church the constitution is guar- 
ded with the greatest fidelity, for before it can be altered three 
fourths of all the members of the several annual conferences 
who shall be present and vote on such recommendation, and 
a majority of two thirds of the general conference, must favor 
it, and added to this, the doctrines of the church are unalterable 
under any circumstances* These precautions against innova- 
tion our faithful fathers thought necessary to secure the church 
against the revolutions of public opinion, and the tyranny of 
ecclesiastical agitators. Without these checks and guards no 
ehurch can be safe. They are constantly exposed to those 
changes which arise from the new-fangled theories of the age, 
and are liable to be driven, by every passing influence from 
all their ancient moorings. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



OF DISORGANIZERS IN CHURCHES. 

The elements of the moral world are in commotion. Ever 
since the rebellion against Moses in the wilderness by object- 
ing to his authority the Israel of God have had a class of dis- 
organizes in regular succession. Ecclesiastical anarchy is 
the form of polity peculiarly adapted to their excited minds. 
They are common to all organizations whether lax or orderly, 
and their opposition to wholesome rule is occasioned, not by 
the government or doctrines of the church, but it arises spon- 
taneously from their own heated imaginations and disorderly 
feelings. In the consideration of their case we propose to 
shew : 

I. The origin op their disaffection. 

II. The course the,y pursue. 

III. The consequences. 

I. Of the origin of their disaffection. 

1. This is generally from the loss of their first love. Once 
the church was their home, and they loved it ; they were wil" 
ling to lay themselves on the altar of God to defend' it, they 
dwelt in its embrace with holy delight, then they held sweet 
communion, and lived in fellowship with the brethren ; — 
but, alas, " Flow is the gold become dim ! how is the most 
fine gold changed." Now they are willing to destroy what 
they once' helped to build up and establish. 

2. A.notheT cause of disaffection is a love of novelty. In 
their hearts they exclaim: like the Spanish Jesuit ; " happy is 
he who proclaims a doctrine not yet heard." Ever ready to 
lead off in any new enterprise they enter upon it with rashness 



202 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

and, without consulting with' their minister or brethren, they 
rush forward:; then others must rouse up and fall in with them, 
and pursue on with a vengeance, and help to take the world 
by storm, or be condemned as enemies to the important cause. 
Should the brethren think them hasty and inconsiderate, or 
should the minister advise moderation the excitement is only 
increased, feelings are wounded, brotherly love is destroyed, 
the social circle becomes a place of debate and controversy, 
the ligaments which bind the society together are severed, and 
the church is divided into contending factions or scattered to 
the winds. The origin of all this is a loss of -first love and a 
desire for novelty. 

3. Insubordination, or an unwillingness to be restrained by 
the regulations of the society, is another prolific cause of dis- 
organization. Ultraists are ungovernable. No rules however 
salutary can restrain them, no advice however mild can 
influence them ; counsel and admonition are all lost ; they 
are intent on their favorite project and all must submit to that ; 
onward is their watchword, and in a storm of excitement on- 
ward they will go, right or wrong ; though it be at the peril 
of their own souls, and of all that is dear in the church of God, 

4. Disorganizes frequently have their origin in a determi- 
nation to rule the Church. Being unrestrainable by its whole- 
some regulations, they are constantly uneasy under them ; 
being unsuitable, in the estimation of the church, to be trusted 
with important church offices, they' thirst for power ; and con- 
sidering themselves the true standard, and that all should submit 
to their dictation, they appeal for sympathy, endeavor to get up 
a faction, and cry loudly in favor of equal rights ; but when 
placed at the head of their party, it is soon found that lawless 
agitators and schismatics, when they have the opportunity, 
are the most ungovernable and despotic rulers'in the world. 

5. Disaffection toward the church often originates with 
blank, professed .infidelity. It is well known by many that 



DTSORGANIZERS IN CHURCHES. 203 

there are infidel lecturers who make it their principal business 
to disorganize churches, and bring religion into disrepute ; 
and this fact developed itself in the " Infidel Convention" in 
New York in May 1845, in which one of their principal speak- 
ers whose name is now before me, " after a series of blasphe- 
mous railings against God and the Bible, and every thing sa- 
cred, used this language : ' I never deliver lectures on in- 
fidelity ; but I am constantly lecturing upon the various re- 
forms of the age. I lecture on temperance, on antislavery, on 
peace, on moral reform, on socialism &c, &c, but wherever I 
go I lecture on infidel principles ! Thus our cause is promo- 
ted continually.' 

The infidels met on the occasion alluded to, formed a society 
for the dissemination of their wicked, heathenish sentiments. 
Books, tracts, lectures, and personal conversation are the prin- 
cipal agencies they propose to use." 

Thus whatever may be the origin of their disorganization 
whether in the church or out of it, whether they have lost their 
first love or never had it, their ungovernable proceedings give 
fearful demonstration of a destitution of a sincere desire to 
to glorify God or benefit their fellow men, and it is to these 
disorganizes and not to all public lecturers that the objections 
in these pages are directed. ■> 

ill. The course they pursue, will next be considered. 
The method is stereotyped. They start their new theory, no 
matter how inconsistent, the more so it would seem the better, 
only so as to give it the grace of novelty. Then get up a peri- 
odical to advocate the doctrine ; then start, as an agent for the 
paper, a lecturer. This agency is frequently supplied by men 
of doubtful character, where they are known ; perhaps a sec- 
ond or third rate minister seeking for a call and having nothing 
to lose ; or a " Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preemi- 
nence," and is a disaffected member of some church, respon- 
sible nowhere. He makes his way to the unsuspecting and 
influential christian family, and then to the house of God, He 



204 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

introduces himself by saying, "I am about to address you on 
a subject upon which the pulpit and the press are generally 
silent." Professing great charity for the religious views of the 
people, he congratulates them on the similarity of their opin- 
ions with his own views, and proceeds by degrees, cautiously, 
to advance his new system ; being sure to arrogate to himself 
the prerogative to dictate to all churches and ministers, what 
is right in religion and morals. Should the people object to 
these novelties he makes a great bluster about persecution, 
seeking light and truth etc. Thus the way is open for all 
classes of infidels to go forth and preach their sentiments under 
the guise of morals and religion ; and being responsible for 
their conduct no where, they can exert all their powers of 
persuasion, with all the advantages of the popular system, to 
spread ruin and death around them. And frequently ministers, 
with the best intentions have made them popular by giving 
them their influence, when they sieze it and go on with accel- 
erated force. In this way misrule and infidelity are sown 
broad cast, all over the moral field, under the specious title of 
temperance, or anti-slavery, or moral reform ; by striking one 
blow at the contemplated evil, and ten at the church and its 
ministers. His one novel theme is the all absorbing subject 
of consideration, and losing sight of every thing else, the one 
idea covers the whole field of his mental vision. The whole 
Bible is full of his favorite doctrine, all other objects are of 
minor importance, for his mind, having entirely lost its balance 
is all concentrated to one exclusive project. Now in order to 
succeed he must pretend that the churches are all corrupt, and 
then displaying the contrast between truth and error, corrup- 
tion and purity, he proves, or professes to prove, by multitudi- 
nous reasons, that the churches and ministers are all wrong, 
and all guilty, and arraying the character and conduct of long- 
tried and useful ministers, and deploring the universal corrup- 
tion of the churches, they hold up their names and deeds to 
public obloquy. Then they raise their banners for a new or- 



DISORGANIZERS IN CHURCHES. 205 

ganization, and cry "come out of her my people," " engage 
in the glorious work of secession !" now for a general rush ! 
a terrible bluster ! split the churches, scatter them to the winds, 
havoc, and onward to battle. 

As each modern innovator is just right in his own eyes, all 
others are just wrong of course ; but as the battle frequently 
waxes hot, even among themselves, we shall leave the whole 
arena of controversy to the clashing of these modern gladiators, 
and let them settle their own jars, and bolster up their own 
discordant and heterogeneous novelties to their liking ; and 
proceed to state the specially objectionable feature in all their 
systems, viz. their exclusiveness. 

When the disciples saw one casting out devils, and forbade 
him, because he followed not with them, Jesus said, " Forbid 
him nol ; for he that is not against us is for us." Some of the 
choicest spirits in the world are scattered through all the ranks 
of the various christian denominations, the purity and inno- 
cence of their lives are beyond suspicion ; and when the prime 
leaders of factions come up and assert their own exclusiveness, 
and disorganize and scatter churches for the sake of building 
on their ruins, they follow in the train of those hypocrites of 
antiquity who " compass sea and land to make one proselyte." 
What confidence can the christian public have in the leaders of 
these new factions ; and what prospect of permanency do their 
organizations present, rotten already, and tottering to their 
fall % Innovations are not necessarily reformations, they are 
often dangerous, and when needless, always destructive ; pro- 
ducing contentions and divisions ; and as there are churches 
and controversies enough already, a swarm of heterogeneous, 
new fangled theories is uncalled for and gratuitous. In their 
onward course they diverge farther and farther from the line 
of christian propriety, and the time has fully come when the 
friends of religion should speak out, for they have endured the 
buffetings of schismatics and public agitators in great silence 
for a long season. The lovers of good order should regard 



206 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

all disorganizers with suspicion ; though all public lecturers 
are not of that class. But when men endeavor to divide and 
break up churches which have been reared with so much care, 
and have stood so firmly for God, and his cause, against infi- 
delity and irreligion, and have received so many tokens of 
divine approval ; and when they denounce ministers better 
than themselves, alienate family connections, and spread ruin 
and devastation around them, they are ■ doing the destroyer's 
work ; and ruining the souls of men. God calls upon us loudly 
to beware of them ; Rom. 16, 17, " Mark them which cause 
divisions, and avoid them." And the reason is given 1. Cor. 
14, 33, " For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace." 
III. The consequences of their course will next be de- 
lineated. 

1. They have a tendency to lower the standard of Christian- 
ity in the world. God's holy sabbath has often been desecrated, 
and his own ministers whom he himself has called, and com- 
missioned, and anointed with the Holy Ghost, and sent to 
preach the gospel, have been requested to abandon the pulpit 
for the witty lecturer to come and relate his facetious anec- 
dotes, when cheering, and stamping, and merriment, and con- 
fusion follow ; and the buffoon who created the loudest laugh- 
ter received most applause. The solemnity of the day, and 
the sanctity of the place have been grossly profaned ; yet they 
will sometimes permit the minister to ' ; open with pra}~er," not 
because reverence is due to God, not because they need di- 
vine aid, but ' ; to keep the boys still." 

2. The ultra operations of disorganizers have a direct ten- 
dency to depress the ministry of Jesus Christ, and destroy its 
influence. The great claims of religion with their eternal 
sanctions are substituted by popular excitements and anecdotes ; 
and the influences of the Holy Ghost are supplanted by the 
potency of public sentiment. Should a minister stand up to 
rebuke them, or interpose in. any way against the dogmas of 
modern reformers, he.is denounced as " opposed to the cause," 



DIS0RGAN1ZERS IN CHURCHES. 207 

and as a persecutor ; the public are appealed to for sympathy, 
andispeeially the church is called to defend them, the members 
array themselves on either side, and thus the church of God it- 
self has the war carried to its own very vitals; but should the 
minister take no stand on either side he is still called a time ser- 
ver, and arrayed as an enemy ; so that he has no alternative 
but to submit to the dictation of every hobby riding disorgan- 
izer, or fall under the weight of his anathemas. 

3. Their operations tend to produce schism in the church 
of Christ, and of this weare specially admonished to beware, 
1. Cor. 12, 25, u That there should be no schism in the body." 
Every effort of disorganizes has a direct tendency to a divis- 
ion of the church, and to scatter the flock of Christ ; but God 
says; I. Cor. 1, 10, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the 
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same 
thing, and that there be no divisions among you ; but that ye 
be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same 
judgment." Mr. Wesley says : " Oh beware, I will not say 
of forming, but of countenancing, or abetting any parties in a 
christian society ! Never encourage, much less cause, either 
by word or action, any division therein." Works, vol. 2. 
pp. 167. 

4. Another consequence of the course of these schismatics 
is a direct tendency to destroy all confidence in the church of 
God. With many of the disorganizes it would seem that the 
more abuse they heap upon the church the better, as will be 
seen by the following quotation from one of the lecturers in 
the empire state. " So much for having slaveholding in 
the church in the north ! • Well, I hope wise men will learn 
a lesson by and by, and come out of these Synagogues of the 
Devil, where it is not allowed to obey the Saviors Golden 
Rule." A Moral Reform agent says : " It is indeed a lux- 
ury, to return from the bustle, opposition, responsibility, and 
hated work of directing a corrupt public mind, a slumbering 
church, .a ^squeamish, and. in some instances (it is. to be feared) , 



208 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

a time serving ministry, to the claims of the seventh command- 
ment. " The Champlain Annual Conference, a branch of 
what styles itself the " Wesleyan Methodist Church" which 
commenced June 20, 1844 and published its proceedings in 
the " True Wesleyan" of August 24, 1844 after declaring 
that the members of the church are " manstealers" and " con- 
senting with thieves" they proceed to confirm it by embody- 
ing in their 4th Resolution that, to do as certain christians and 
ministers do " is to turn the visible church into a brotherhood 
of thieves, to prostitute the ministry into a refuge of robbers." 
And a work by Stephen S. Foster called the " Brotherhood 
of Thieves" speaking of the Methodist Episcopal Church says : 
"Is not this Church, then, a ' Brotherhood of Thieves V Is 
it not, rather a conclave of incarnate fiends, whose influence 
is as much more corrupting to the morals of the community 
than the theatre, as its doctrines are more damnable % For one, 
much as I deprecate the erection of a theatre, I deprecate the 
erection of a Methodist Meeting house more ! The stage 
does not teach my neighbors that the New Testament allows 
them to enslave my wife and children ; but the Methodist 
pulpit does ! I know not in .what light you view this subject, 
but for myself, I regard every intelligent communicant in the 
Methodist Church as more guilty and infamous in the sight of 
God, than the common prostitute, the pickpocket, or the assas- 
sin ; and I cannot associate with them on any other terms of 
intercourse, than those which I stipulate for those infamous 
characters." Now when we consider how many there are 
that swallow down such statements with greediness, and place 
the utmost confidence in such ultra disorganizers, looking upon 
them as the great philanthropists of the age, and lights of the 
world ; we may be well assured that the church would have 
been annihilated had not God been in it. There can be no 
wonder that confidence is destroyed in the church when some 
of its members are seduced to follow those infidel scoffers. 
5. Another consequence of their ultraism is to keep the 



DJSOIIUANIZERS IN cmjllCHES. 209 

minds of christians constantly excited, and unfitted for religious 
action. They draw them to other subjects than those of the 
deep things of God, sour their spirits, scatter their energies, 
and bring on apostacy, destruction and final ruin. The sit- 
uation of the churches where ultraisms have obtained most, 
give fearful demonstration of these astounding truths. 

These disorganizes ask us to put our everlasting all on 
board,- and launch out, at their risk, upon the stormy ocean of 
doubtful and visionary experiment. But beware, fellow chris- 
tians, beware of being seduced by agitators and innovators, 
from the well tried churches and ministers of your 'early choice. 
Behold the members, deluded away from regular churches, by 
schismatics, and thrown upon the resources of irresponsible 
travelling lecturers, divided among themselves into contending 
factions ; and see churches scattered to the winds of heaven, 
and the wrecks of christians lying in scattered ruins, with 
member arrayed against member, neighbor against neighbor, 
and man against man, while angels weep, and Zion bleeds at 
a thousand pores. See the sheep, seduced away from the shep- 
herds, and scattered upon the mountains ; and the unsuspec- 
ting lambs, unfed, and unprotected ; and see the disorganizing 
" lo heres and lo theres," still clamoring for fresh victims. 

But let us pause and reflect : can God be pleased with their 
reckless proceedings ? They will cause trembling and terror 
in a dying hour. Their violence has cost many the loss of 
their religion, and perhaps their souls ; but the day is coming 
when God will sift them as wheat, and will leave no chafF 
among the wheat, nor wheat among the chaff. When the 
Judge of all the earth shall come, who loves his church which 
he purchased with his own precious blood, and is jealous of 
its peace and prosperity, and has given constant evidence of 
his fidelity and love to its members ; when he sees its desola- 
tions by those who "cause divisions," the unsuspecting may 
plead ignorance, the drunkard his appetite, and the murderer 
his angry passions, but what will they plead ? They knew 

14 



210 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

better ! What will they plead, in that dreadful day, when the 
blood of ruined souls cries for vengeance ? Agitation will 
not then cover their sins. These ruined ones were once in 
the church of Christ, went with delight to the house of God ; 
Avere comforted, strengthened ; but the schismatic came, alien- 
ated their affections, deceived them, and led them away to ruin ; 
their religion was lost, their souls are damned, and their blood 
is required at their destroyers' hands. 




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CHAPTER XXXT. 



DUTY TO SUSTAIN CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER. 

Every man's conduct has its weight of influence on the 
destinies of his fellow men, in both their civil and ecclesiasti- 
cal relations ; and that influence will of course be exerted in 
a greater or less degree to sustain order, or promote confusion. 

I. It IS THE DUTY OF ALL MEN TO SUSTAIN CIVIL ORDER. 

1. Because God enjoins obedience to the civil power. 
Rom. 13, 1, 7, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher 
powers. For there is no power but of God : the powers that 
be are ordained of God." Whosoever therefore resisteth the 
power, resisteth the ordinance of God ; ect. I. Pet. 2, 13, 14, 
" Submit yoursleves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's 
sake : whether it be to the king as supreme ; or unto gover- 
nors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of 
evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well." Tit. 3, 
1, " Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and pow- 
ers, to obey magistrates." 

When God requires us to render unto Caesar, the things 
which are Caesar's ; he does not say that Caesar is a good man, 
or that we should obey him when he requires us to disobey 
God ; for " we ought to obey God rather than men ;" but that 
we should render magistrates their due, or respect the law 
which is promotive of good order. Obedience to Caesar im- 
plies, First ; that men should honor him, not for his good 
personal qualities, but for his office: Secondly ; that they 
obey him, as the executor of the laws for the maintenance of 
gooa order ; and, Thirdly ; that they pay tribute for the sup- 






212 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

port and defense of the government. This should be done 
because a bad administration is better than none, and anarch v 
the worst of all. No government can exactly adapt itself to 
the wants of all its subjects, but should usually be sustained till 
changed in a regular and constitutional way : yet its exact- 
ions may possibly be so manifestly unjust and inconsistent 
with our other obligations, that they may and ought to be re- 
sisted, still it should never be forgotten that God enjoins obe- 
dience to civil rulers. 

2. Civil government should be sustained because it is indis- 
pensable to the welfare of the world. Without it there would 
be no civil protection for person or property ; every nation 
would be convulsed with factions, and riots, and revolutions, 
and would finally settle down into absolute despotism. 

, 3. It should be maintained in view of the social compact, 
or tacit consent to be governed by the laws of the state, and 
in consideration of that we receive protection as an equivalent. 
4. Civilorder should be preserved because it is indispensa- 
ble for our personal safety. Without a fixed and stable gov- 
ernment the state would be ruled by the caprJce of a fickle 
rabble ; for when the constitutional barriers are broken down, 
Lynch law will prevail. 

5. As civil government is of God, and was ordain- 
ed by him ; not in form, but in fact • and as it secures our 
property, conduces to our peace, promotes our prosperity, and 
protects our lives ; it becomes a crime of no ordinary magni- 
tude to do what leads to popular commotion, to disturb the pub- 
lic peace, and shake or unsettle the foundations of civil society. 
It is not only an insult to God by breaking his commands, 
but it is an injury to man, by sundering the bonds which bind 
society together. 

II. It is the duty of ALL christians TO SUSTAIN EC- 

CLESIAST1CAL ORDER. 

1, Because God himself has instituted church polity, not 



DUTY TO SUSTAIN CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER. 213 

the form, but the thing. He enjoins subordination to eccles- 
iastical government as essential to the prosperity of the church. 
I. Thess. 5, 12, 13, "And we beseech you, brethren, to know 
them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, 
and admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly in love 
for their works sake." I. Tim. 5, 17, " Let the elders that 
rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they 
who labor in the word and doctrine." Heb. 13, 7, " Remem- 
ber them which have the rule over you," ver. 17, "Obey them 
that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves : for they 
watch for your souls, as they that must give account." These 
scriptures are binding on all christians, and cannot be violated 
with impunity ; and they shew the wide distinction between 
the claims of the voluntary associations of men, and those of 
the church of God. 

2. Christians should sustain ecclesiastical order because its 
stability conduces to the welfare of the world. Without order 
and regulation there could not long be a church. It would 
very soon become corrupt and be subverted by misrule and 
confusion. 

3. A healthful system of church polity should be maintained 
in consideration of the covenant relations existing between 
brethren. When they united with the church of God they 
tacitly agreed to observe its order, abide by its rules, and sus. 
tain its institutions ; and to do otherwise is a violation of that 
sacred pledge. After receiving an equivalent in spiritual 
benefit, it would be ungenerous and unjust to turn against the 
church, and endeavor to scatter its energies, and destroy its 
influence. 

4. Ecclesiastical order should be preserved because the 
Spirit of God dictates union and association among christians. 
The church is called a " little flock" and its members are re- 
quired not to forsake the assembling of themselves together, 
and this requires rules, and order, hence they should be sus- 
tained. 



214 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

5. It should be observed to concentrate the strength of the 
church, that the union of all the members may form an in- 
vincible phalanx against sin. God demands, and his cause 
deserves, that all the members act in concert ; and if all the 
church were perfectly united, they would present an impreg- 
nable rampart against the powers of darkness, which all the 
disciplined legions of hell could not shake. 

6. Christians should maintain church order because it is 
most conducive to the salvation of the soul. In the sequel it 
promotes peace, harmony, and brotherly love. Where ec- 
clesiastical order ceases, ecclesiastical anarchy prevails, ec- 
clesiastical demagogues rule, and ecclesiastical despotism will 
be the result. The experience of a long course of years 
demonstrates, that in the end, those churches have succeeded 
best, which have had the best church order in them. 

7. As the church of God is established, and protected, by 
Omnipotent power, as it is connected with our present peace 
and our eternal welfare, and as God has given certain laws 
which shew that he designed that order should exist within its 
pale ; it becomes a high affront to heaven and earth to violate 
the order of God. Men should pause and reflect seriously, 
before they take a step that would cause division in a church. 
The interests of the whole world are at stake. It is incurring 
a responsibility of no trifling magnitude to throw the church 
of God into confusion, in order to " ride in the whirlwind and 
direct the storm." No enlightened christian can be a disor- 
ganize]", and be innocent. Without church organizations the 
world would soon go back to heathenism, and there is safety 
for man no where but on the uncrumbling rock of religious 
truth. It is easier to tear down, than to build up ; to unsettle 
than establish ; and it is easier to make objections to any sys- 
tem of church polity than to form a better one. Whoever 
would wantonly divide the Methodist Church, the Episcopal, 
Presbyterian, Congregational or Baptist Church, would do a 
great and grievous wrong, he would wickedly violate the com- 



DUTY TO SUSTAIN CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER. 215 

mand of God, and inflict a wound he could never heal. If 
those forms of polity are not what they should be, let it be 
remembered that when viewed in all their parts they all have 
their excellencies as well as defects, that no government will 
infallibly reach every individual case, that like all civil gov- 
ernments made for the great whole, they may not always se- 
cure the ends of justice to all individuals. But church gov- 
ernment can never be improved by agitation and ultraism and 
hobby riding ; if done at all it will be done in a constitution- 
al and orderly way. 

The world is full of disaffected schismatics and comeouters, 
often contentious and ungovernable, with their new lights, 
and new speculations ; but christians had better obey God, 
and "look for the old paths ;" for innovators and inventors of 
new theories have made the world no better. 

The forms of government in all the Protestant Churches are 
so near the true pattern that if rightly improved all may en- 
joy the benefits contemplated in their organization ; viz, to 
enjoy God and his people on earth, and to get to heaven ; and 
if these mild forms of polity, administered with due gentleness, 
and assisted by the grace of God, will not restrain the head- 
strong spirits of men on earth, how can they expect to be fit- 
-ed for heaven, where all is peace and purity and love 1 No 
one can have a reasonable hope that the dissolute and ungov 
ernable will be saved. Then let all denominations of chris- 
tians be satisfied with their regular and wholesome organiza- 
tions, and conform their lives to them, and " follow peace with 
all men" and " study to be quiet." 

Let God's own ministers attend to the one calling, and 
preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified, and nothing else. Our 
Lord says ; " And whosoever doth not bear his cross and 
come after me, cannot be my disciple." A wide field for 
self-sacrifice spreads forth in the broad expanse, ripened and 
ready for the harvest, but the reaping time is short. The war- 
fare will soon be ended. Peacemakers, being the children of 



216 ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 

God, will soon enjoy their patrimony. Though strangers on 
earth they have a home in heaven, and though all their en- 
deared domestic circles must be broken up by death ; the grave 
will not always retain its transient victims. The dawn of the 
resurrection morn will disclose the glories of another and a 
brighter world. Then the pilgrim, saved by grace, and pin- 
ioned for the skies, rinds himself with whitened robes, and 
angel plumes, among the purling streams, and golden streets, 
and towering walls, and pearly gates, and glittering crowns^ 
and waving palms of the eternal city. May the reader and 
writer of this be there. 



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